NEC4 Roles & Responsibilities: Who Does What Under ECC

The Project Manager: Powers, Duties, and Response Periods

The Project Manager (PM) is the most contractually active role under NEC4. Clause 14.2 allows the Employer to replace the Project Manager, but once appointed, the PM acts within the contract with significant autonomous authority. The PM is not the Employer's agent in the traditional sense — many PM decisions are binding on the Employer even where the Employer would prefer a different outcome.

What the PM can do:

• Issue instructions that change the Works Information (Clause 14.3) — these are compensation events under Clause 60.1(1)
• Accept or reject the Contractor's programme (Clause 31.3)
• Notify and assess compensation events (Clauses 61, 62, 63)
• Certify payments (Clause 51)
• Issue take-over certificates (Clause 35)
• Give instructions to stop or not start work (Clause 34)
• Accept or reject early warning notifications and manage the Early Warning Register (Clause 15)

What the PM cannot do is equally important. The PM cannot unilaterally change the contract terms. The PM cannot instruct the Contractor to breach a legal obligation. And critically, the PM cannot withhold a certificate that the contract requires — doing so is a breach entitling the Contractor to compensation.

PM Response Periods That Matter Commercially

Miss these and you create deemed acceptance or breach situations:

I've seen PM teams on large infrastructure packages routinely run past the Clause 61.4 one-week deadline. The Contractor lets it slide because the working relationship feels fine. Then a dispute arises six months later and the PM claims they never agreed the event was a CE at all. The Contractor has no deemed acceptance — because they never formally invoked it. Don't let that happen. Track PM deadlines from day one.

The Supervisor: Inspection Rights and What They Actually Mean

The Supervisor is appointed by the Employer and operates independently of the Project Manager. The key point most commercial teams miss: the Supervisor's role is quality assurance, not contract administration. The Supervisor cannot instruct the Contractor directly (except in very specific circumstances). Instructions come from the PM, not the Supervisor.

What the Supervisor can do:

• Instruct the Contractor to uncover work (Clause 42.1)
• Notify the Contractor of defects (Clause 42.2) — but the PM then manages the defect correction process
• Attend tests and inspections
• Issue a defects certificate when the defects correction period ends (Clause 43.3)

The Supervisor's defect notification under Clause 42.2 starts a clock. The Contractor has until the defects date to correct notified defects. Uncorrected defects after the defects date allow the PM (not the Supervisor) to assess the cost of having the Employer correct them under Clause 45.

One function the Supervisor cannot delegate: issuing the defects certificate. This must be done by the Supervisor personally. The defects certificate is a precondition for the Employer releasing the second portion of retention where Option X16 is used.

The Employer: Retained Risks and Direct Obligations

The Employer is a party to the contract but exercises most contractual authority through the PM. That said, the Employer retains several direct obligations that do not flow through the PM.

Direct Employer obligations under NEC4 ECC:

• Provide access to and use of the Site as required by the Works Information (Clause 33) — failure is a CE under Clause 60.1(2)
• Provide materials, facilities, and samples as stated in the Works Information (Clause 25.1)
• Insure as required by Clause 84 and Options X13/X14
• Pay the Contractor in accordance with the contract — the Employer cannot instruct the PM to withhold a certified payment

Here's something that trips up junior QS teams: the Employer and the PM are not interchangeable. On many projects, the Employer issues directions informally — emails, meeting notes, phone calls — that look like PM instructions. They are not. An Employer direction to the Contractor that is not channelled through the PM as a formal instruction under Clause 14 does not create a compensation event. The Contractor should always confirm with the PM in writing when an apparent Employer direction has commercial implications.

The Contractor: Core Obligations and Where Teams Go Wrong

The Contractor's obligations under NEC4 ECC are substantially more demanding than under traditional JCT or older NEC3 practice. The core obligation is to Provide the Works — defined by the Works Information — but the contract wraps this in procedural requirements that are commercially critical.

The Contractor's key obligations:

• Provide the Works in accordance with the Works Information and the Site Information
• Notify compensation events within 8 weeks of becoming aware (Clause 61.3) — the NEC4 eight-week time bar is a condition precedent
• Submit and maintain a compliant Accepted Programme (Clauses 31 and 32)
• Give early warnings of risks that could affect cost, time, or quality (Clause 15)
• Submit CE quotations within 3 weeks of the PM's instruction to do so (Clause 62.2)
• Notify the PM if the Contractor believes a PM instruction is not contractually valid (Clause 17)

Programme Obligations in Detail

The programme obligation is one of the most commercially significant — and most neglected. Clause 31 specifies what the programme must show: planned start and finish dates for operations, the Accepted Programme date, float, time risk allowances, planned Completion, and the order and timing of any operations the Contract Data requires. A programme that does not include all of these is not compliant and the PM is entitled to reject it.

Without an Accepted Programme, the PM assesses compensation event time impacts using their own assumptions under Clause 63.5. Those assumptions are invariably less favourable to the Contractor than the Contractor's own programme logic. The NEC4 programme management guide covers this in full.

Subcontracting Rules

The Contractor may subcontract work but must submit the name of each proposed Subcontractor to the PM for acceptance (Clause 26.2). The PM can only reject a proposed Subcontractor on stated grounds. Critically, for cost-reimbursable options (Options C, D, E), Defined Cost includes payments to Subcontractors — which means Subcontractor invoices feed directly into the Contractor's cost calculation. Inflated or unapproved Subcontractor costs create disallowed cost risk.

The Subcontractor: Flow-Down Obligations

NEC4 does not define a mandatory subcontract form, but the NEC4 Engineering and Construction Subcontract (ECS) is designed to flow down the main contract's key mechanisms. Where it is used, the Subcontractor faces the same time bar, early warning, programme, and communication requirements as the Contractor faces on the main contract.

What flows down under NEC4 ECS:

• 8-week time bar for compensation events (mirrored from Clause 61.3)
• Early warning obligations
• Programme submission and acceptance
• Defects notification and correction periods
• Formal communication requirements

The practical risk is where a Contractor is using a JCT subcontract or a bespoke form alongside an NEC4 main contract. The mechanisms do not align cleanly. Contractors who mix contract forms on NEC4 projects create gaps that are expensive in disputes.

Design Responsibility: Where It Sits Under Different ECC Options

Under NEC4 ECC, design responsibility depends on the Works Information. The contract does not allocate design responsibility by default — the Works Information must state explicitly what the Contractor is to design and what design the Employer has provided.

Where the Contractor provides design, Clause 21.1 requires the Contractor to design to the standard of skill and care of a professional designer. There is no fitness for purpose obligation unless the Works Information explicitly imposes one. Where the Employer provides design through a separate consultant or Other Person, that person's errors are Employer risk under Clause 60.1(1) — an instruction to change the Works Information to correct a design error is a compensation event.

NEC4 allows the Employer to engage Other Persons who work alongside the Contractor on the site. If an Other Person delays the Contractor's work or causes an instruction to change the Works Information, that is a compensation event under Clause 60.1. The Contractor who identifies these interactions early — and gives early warning notifications about interface risks — is in a much stronger position than one who absorbs the disruption and claims retrospectively.

The Adjudicator: Appointment and Powers Under W1 and W2

NEC4 ECC includes dispute resolution through adjudication under two alternative Dispute Resolution Options:

• Option W1 — applies where the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 does not apply (typically offshore or certain utilities works)
• Option W2 — applies where the HGCRA does apply (the default for most UK construction contracts)

Under W2 (the more common option), either party may refer a dispute to adjudication at any time, with the adjudicator required to reach a decision within 28 days of referral (extendable by 14 days with the referring party's consent).

What the adjudicator can decide:

• Whether a compensation event has occurred
• The correct assessment of a compensation event
• Whether the PM has acted correctly in accepting or rejecting a programme
• Whether the time bar has been validly applied
• Payment disputes

The adjudicator's decision is binding until the dispute is resolved by a tribunal. The "pay now, argue later" principle means that an adjudicator's payment decision must be implemented even if one party disagrees. One point that often catches out Employers: the PM's certificates are not binding on the adjudicator. The adjudicator can override a PM assessment if the PM has acted incorrectly under the contract.

How the Roles Interact: PM Instructions vs Employer Directions

The most practically important relationship to understand is between the Employer and the PM. The Employer appoints the PM and can replace them (Clause 14.2), but the PM's contractual decisions are not subject to Employer override once made. If the PM certifies a payment, the Employer must pay. If the PM accepts a programme, the Employer cannot instruct the PM to un-accept it.

This creates a real dynamic on large projects: the Employer's commercial team will often try to influence PM decisions informally. The PM who simply acts on these instructions without applying their contractual judgement is exposing the Employer to an unfavourable adjudication outcome.

The lesson: understand who has authority to instruct you. When anyone other than the PM gives you a direction that has cost implications, confirm it in writing with the PM before implementing it.

What Happens When the PM Gets It Wrong

The PM is a person, not an oracle. PM decisions can be wrong, and the contract provides for this:

• If the PM fails to notify a CE that should have been notified, Clause 61.1 gives the PM the obligation to notify CEs it should have raised
• If the PM wrongly applies the time bar, the Contractor can adjudicate
• If the PM assesses a CE incorrectly, the Contractor can ask the PM to reassess (Clause 62.4) or refer to adjudication
• If the PM fails to certify a payment correctly, the Contractor can refer to adjudication and seek enforcement

Reference: NEC4 Roles Comparison Table

1. Treating Supervisor instructions as PM instructions. The Supervisor does not have authority to vary the works. An instruction to uncover and retest work is not an instruction to carry out additional work. The Contractor should seek a PM instruction for any additional cost arising from Supervisor-directed activities.

2. Accepting informal Employer directions as contractual instructions. Every direction with cost or time implications needs to be channelled through the PM. If the Employer's commercial team tells you informally to accelerate, ask the PM for a formal acceleration instruction under Clause 36.

3. Not tracking PM response deadlines. The PM has binding response periods. Many contractors do not log when these expire. A PM who has missed the Clause 61.4 one-week deadline has not prevented a valid CE — but the Contractor who fails to invoke deemed acceptance under Clause 62.6 misses a concrete commercial advantage.

4. Assuming the PM and Employer are aligned. Sometimes they're not. The PM has an obligation to act in a spirit of mutual trust and cooperation under Clause 10.2. The Employer's commercial interests may push against this. Understanding the tension helps the Contractor understand why PM decisions sometimes don't make commercial sense from the Employer's perspective — and why adjudication can overturn them.

5. Failing to get proposed Subcontractors accepted. Under Clause 26.2, the PM must accept proposed Subcontractors before they are engaged. A Contractor who subcontracts without this acceptance risks the work being treated outside the contract framework and the costs being Disallowed Cost under Option C or D contracts.