Risk Register

The NEC Risk Register is the NEC3 name for the shared contract list of matters raised as early warnings, along with any risks listed in the Contract Data. It records each risk and the actions agreed to avoid or reduce it. NEC4 replaced it with the Early Warning Register, so if you're on NEC4, the term in your contract is different.

The definition is at clause 11.2(14) of the NEC3 ECC, with the procedure in clause 16. For NEC3 practice, including how to run one, see the NEC3 Risk Register guide. This page is about what the term means and how it trips people up. It's part of the NEC definitions glossary.

Two different documents with one name

This is the biggest source of confusion, and it's why NEC changed the name.

	NEC3 Risk Register	A typical project risk register
Purpose	Record warned matters and actions under the contract	Identify and quantify risks for internal management
Owner	The Project Manager	Often the Contractor's or Client's own team
Shared with the other side?	Yes, it's a contract document	Often not
Contents	Risk description and actions	Often likelihood, impact, money, contingency
Trigger for adding	Contract Data listing, or early warning notice	Any risk workshop

Merging the two usually causes trouble. A Contractor won't want its contingency figures on a shared record, and a Project Manager's contract record gets cluttered with general project concerns.

How it works in NEC3

1. The Project Manager or the Contractor gives an early warning under 16.1. The Project Manager enters the matter on the register.
2. Either can require the other to come to a risk reduction meeting (16.2).
3. Those attending work through proposals, seek solutions, decide actions and owners, and remove anything that's been avoided or has passed (16.3).
4. The Project Manager updates the register and sends the Contractor the new version. Any decision that alters the Works Information is instructed alongside it (16.4).

NEC3 doesn't set fixed meeting intervals or a deadline for a first issue in these core clauses, so running one regularly is a matter of discipline. NEC4 builds both in, as described on the NEC4 early warning changes page.

A worked example

A fictional NEC3 job building a retail unit. The Contract Data lists "contaminated ground at the former fuel store" as a risk, so it's on the register from day one. In month 2 the Contractor warns that a ground investigation may not have tested the fuel store.

• Meeting: attendees agree a further sample, with the Contractor doing it and the Project Manager considering Client options.
• Register: updated to show the action, the owner and the date.
• Result: samples show contamination, so a compensation event is considered under 60.1(12) on the usual test.
• What the register didn't do: it didn't decide who pays. Having the risk on the Contract Data list doesn't change the event's test.

What people get wrong

• Thinking the list allocates risk. Listing a risk doesn't move it to anyone. Allocation comes from the compensation events, the Client's and Contractor's risk clauses and any Z clauses.
• Keeping "Risk Register" in an NEC4 contract. Templates carried across can use the wrong name, or even the wrong clause number (16 in NEC3, 15 in NEC4).
• Letting it go stale. If the register isn't reissued after meetings, the last-known actions don't reflect what was agreed, and you lose your record of who agreed what.
• Treating absence as a defence. Something not on the register may still be a compensation event. And a missing warning is handled under its own rule: the missed early warning process rather than the register's content.

Related guides

• NEC Definitions: A Glossary of Key Terms
• Scope
• Site
• Site Information
• Prices
• Price for Work Done to Date

This guide is general information in our own words, not legal advice. Your contract and its Contract Data always govern. NEC, NEC3 and NEC4 are trade marks of Thomas Telford Ltd; Contract Status is not affiliated with or endorsed by NEC.