The NEC Programme: A Complete Guide

The NEC programme is the Contractor's plan for the work, and the contract gives it real force. Once accepted, it becomes the baseline for measuring delay from compensation events, and it fixes the dates on which the Client has to provide access, information and materials.

That makes it more than a planning document. A weak or out-of-date programme can cost the Contractor time and money, and can cost the Client control over how delay is assessed. This guide covers the NEC4 Engineering and Construction Contract (ECC), notes where NEC3 ECC differs, and points to a detailed page on each topic. It sits within the wider guide to NEC contracts.

The programme clauses at a glance

Subject	NEC4 ECC	NEC3 ECC	In short
Starting and Completion	30.1, 30.2	30.1, 30.2	No start on Site before the first access date; the Project Manager decides and certifies Completion
Key Dates	30.3	30.3	Each Condition is met by its Key Date
First programme	31.1	31.1	Submitted within the Contract Data period, unless one is already identified
Contents	31.2	31.2	The information each programme has to show; NEC4 adds the form stated in the Scope
Acceptance	31.3	31.3	Two weeks to accept or give a reason; NEC4 adds treated acceptance
Revised programmes	32.1, 32.2	32.1, 32.2	What they show and when they are due
Access	33.1	33.1	Access by the later of the access date and the Accepted Programme date
Acceleration	36	36	A quotation route to an earlier Completion Date, never an imposed one
No first programme	50.5	50.3	A 25% deduction from the Price for Work Done to Date applies
Delay in a compensation event	63.5	63.3	Measured from planned Completion on the Accepted Programme

The Accepted Programme

One definition does most of the work. A programme can be identified in the Contract Data, or the Contractor can submit one for acceptance. Either way, the current version is the Accepted Programme, and each newly accepted version replaces the last. Our guide to what the Accepted Programme is explains why that single status matters so much, and why a programme marked up on site has no contractual standing until it is accepted.

A common mistake is thinking acceptance is the Project Manager agreeing that the plan will work. It isn't. Acceptance leaves the Contractor fully responsible for delivering the works (clause 14.1), and it doesn't change the Completion Date.

Getting a programme in place

Most contracts start without an identified programme, so the Contractor's first job is submitting the first programme within the period in the Contract Data. There is a direct commercial reason to do so: until a first programme showing the required information has gone in, each assessment carries a 25% deduction from the Price for Work Done to Date.

Clause 31 sets out the whole process, from first submission to acceptance. Its central list is covered item by item in what an NEC programme must show, which you can use as a submission checklist. Planners and reviewers tend to overlook the same few items: time risk allowances, the dates when the Contractor needs things from others, and the statement of how each operation will be done.

Acceptance, and what happens if nobody answers

The Project Manager has two weeks to accept a programme or give a reason for not accepting it, and only four reasons are listed. Our guide to programme acceptance and reasons for not accepting sets them out with examples of good and bad responses. A planned Completion later than the Completion Date is not one of the four, which surprises many people.

NEC4 added a consequence for silence. If the Project Manager misses the two weeks, the Contractor can notify the failure, and if a further week passes without an answer, the programme is treated as accepted. See deemed acceptance of a programme under NEC4 for the timings, including the longer periods under the Engineering and Construction Subcontract (ECS). NEC3 has no equivalent rule. The NEC4 programme changes page lists this alongside the other differences between the editions.

Keeping it current

Clause 32 deals with revised programmes: what each has to record about progress, delay and proposed changes, and the three situations in which one is due. How often to revise the programme looks at the interval in the Contract Data, and at when revising sooner than that makes sense.

Frequency matters because the baseline for a compensation event is the Accepted Programme in force at the dividing date. If the last accepted revision is months old, it tells you little about the job as it stood when the event happened.

Float and time risk allowances

Clause 31.2 asks for provisions for float and for time risk allowances, but the contract doesn't define either or say outright who owns them. Their treatment comes from the way delay is assessed.

Who owns float in NEC? separates float within the sequence of work from float at the end of it, and shows how each behaves in a compensation event.
Terminal float in NEC covers the gap between planned Completion and the Completion Date, and why the assessment rule leaves it with the Contractor.
Time risk allowance in NEC explains what these allowances are and how to show them in a way a reviewer can find.

The dates that matter

An NEC programme carries several kinds of date, and some are easily mixed up.

Completion Date and planned Completion explains the difference between the contractual date and the Contractor's forecast, and why the gap between them matters.
What counts as Completion? looks at the definition, the Project Manager's decision, and how the Scope can make it clearer or more contentious.
Key Dates in NEC covers Conditions, interfaces with others and the cost of missing one.
Sectional Completion explains Option X5 and how each section takes its own date.
Access dates and starting work covers what the Contract Data says and how the programme can move the date on which access is due.
Acceleration under NEC explains clause 36 and why neither side can impose an earlier Completion Date.

The programme and compensation events

This is where programme discipline pays off or falls apart. Delay is the time by which an event pushes planned Completion, or the planned date for meeting a Key Date's Condition, beyond the date on the Accepted Programme in force at the dividing date. If an event changes the remaining work, the quotation includes the alterations to the programme (62.2).

A missing programme has further consequences. With no Accepted Programme, or with the latest one properly not accepted, the Project Manager can make its own assessment of the compensation event and use its own view of the programme for the remaining work (64.1, 64.2). A Contractor that lets its programme lapse hands over control of time assessments. Using the programme to assess compensation events sets out the method, and the compensation event delay guide works through the arithmetic.

The programme also feeds several events directly. Late access can trigger 60.1(2), late Client-supplied items 60.1(3), and work by the Client or Others outside the programme's times 60.1(5). Withholding acceptance for a reason the contract doesn't give falls under 60.1(9). The compensation events guide covers these in full.

Who does what

Role	Main duties on the programme
Contractor	Submits the first and revised programmes, keeps them realistic, and shows required dates and allowances
Contractor's planner	Builds and updates the programme so it can stand up as the contractual baseline
Project Manager	Replies within two weeks with acceptance or a listed reason, and instructs revisions when needed
Client	Provides access and items by the dates in the contract and on the Accepted Programme

Planners often carry this contractual weight without having been told so. An NEC guide for planners is written for them. On the other side of the table, the NEC programme review checklist gives Project Managers and planners a structured way to check each submission before the two weeks run out.

Five habits that prevent most programme disputes

Diarise the reply date the day a programme arrives, with a deputy who can cover it.
Give reasons in the contract's terms. A non-acceptance that doesn't match a listed reason invites a compensation event.
Revise before the interval requires it if the job has moved materially, so the baseline stays useful.
Keep the live logic. A flat PDF lets you read dates, but won't let anyone test the effect of an event. State the form you want in the Scope.
Record which revision was accepted and when. Months later, the first argument will be about which programme applied at the dividing date. Contract Status keeps programme approvals on the contract record; a controlled register does the same job if it is kept properly.

Periods here are for the main ECC. Subcontracts and your own contract's Z clauses may change them, so check the version you have signed. Under NEC4 ECS, for example, the acceptance periods are three weeks and then two.

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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.