Briefing: NEC contracts—delivering 21st century construction

The New Engineering Contract (NEC) was a revolutionary contract in the early 1990s, but has matured into being the contract of choice for many organisations worldwide. NEC3 is the third-generation launch of an integrated set of contracts, guidance notes and flow charts and comes with a unique endorsement from the UK Office of Government Commerce for use throughout the UK's public sector construction market. The emphasis of NEC is collaborative, co-operative working, and the tools it provides prompt users to move towards a fore sight-based, real-time project-managed environment to get the best out of supply chains. A matrix of contracts is available for works or services for use in high-risk, complex to low-risk, straightforward projects. This will be complemented in 2007 by the NEC3 Supply Contract for the supply of goods when the procurement needs to be managed by the purchaser.