New edition of NEC3 Contract published

A new edition of the UK construction industry’s fastest-growing contract has been published. NEC3 is the third edition of an innovative and already widely used construction contract first published just 12 years ago by the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE). It now meets all criteria of the Office of Government Commerce’s (OGC) Achieving Excellence in Construction (AEC)initiative – such as application of sound project-management rather than dispute-management principles to the contractual process, and provision of clarity in respect of key roles and responsibilities. NEC3 has been revised and enhanced to incorporate extensive user feedback as well as to ensure full compliance with OGC’s AEC initiative. NEC3 can also now be used to procure services over a specific term, such as cleaning and maintenance contracts, and for framework arrangements, in which a panel of pre-qualified suppliers are used on an “as-instructed” basis. The second edition of the NEC already dominates the UK’s £18 billion civil engineering market, around half of which is in the public sector. NEC has also made major inroads into the building market, including £2.3 billion of hospital projects being delivered under NHS Estates’ ProCure21 framework programme as well as dozens of schools, offices, shops and social housing schemes throughout the UK. NEC3 is available from the NEC office in London (see www.neccontract.com).