Updated NEC3 contracts will take account of project bank accounts and BIM protocols

The NEC3 April 2013 edition box set, which will be published on Monday, contains the first major amendments to the NEC3 suite since it was first published in 2005. The box will include a new short-form Professional Services Contract, designed for the procurement of professional and consultancy services on smaller scale projects.

Infrastructure law expert Jonathan Hart of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said that this new contract would "hopefully fulfil the need for providing a quick and easy form of appointment for consultants on smaller projects", or those for work with a very simple scope.

"Also promised is an update of the other contracts in the suite to take account of new industry requirements; such as the use of project bank accounts and BIM protocols, as well as compliance with the amendments to the Housing Grants Construction and Regeneration Act," he said.

"The new iterations of the agreements will hopefully reduce the need for 'bespoking' the standard forms - and serve as a timely reminder to make sure that where you are intending to use a standard form, you are working with a current draft which satisfies all the relevant statutory requirements. From next week, the 2005 editions of the contracts will be withdrawn from sale," he said.

The New Engineering Contract (NEC) is a suite of standard form construction contracts created by the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE). There have been three editions to date: in 1993, 1995 and 2005. NEC is the contract of choice for many of the Government's procurement projects, including 2012 Olympics-related projects and Crossrail. It is also increasingly being used in IT procurement, as well as infrastructure.

The updated contracts incorporate amendments as a result of the Housing Grants Construction and Regeneration Act (Construction Act), which came into force on 1 October 2011 in England and Wales. The Construction Act introduced a number of changes, particularly in relation to payment provisions and the adjudication system. They also include provisions and clauses relating to project bank accounts, which allow clients to make payments into a single bank account which all contractors will have access to and be able to draw their payments from.

The contracts now also include references to the new Building Information Modelling (BIM) Protocol, published last month by the Construction Industry Council (CIC). BIM uses a computer generated model to collect and manage information about the design, construction and operation of a project centrally. Any changes to the design of a project made during its construction are automatically applied to the model, making it especially useful where different sub-contractors are providing input on the same project. The Protocol is designed to enable parties to incorporate standard terms relating to the use of BIM into their existing contracts.