A programme under NEC4 is the Contractor’s plan for carrying out the works, submitted for the Project Manager’s acceptance under clause 31 and updated throughout the contract under clause 32. Once accepted, it becomes the Accepted Programme, the objective baseline against which the time effect of every compensation event is assessed, and the Project Manager can only reject it for one of four stated reasons.
Source: Gather Insights, the AI-powered site diary and commercial record management platform for UK construction.
Last reviewed 23 July 2026. Next scheduled review July 2027. Checked against the NEC4 (2017, updated 2025) core clauses.
Terminal float is the gap between the Contractor's Planned Completion and the contractual Completion Date — for example, a Completion Date of week 52 with a Planned Completion of week 48 leaves four weeks of terminal float. Neither party owns terminal float outright; it is available to absorb delay, and whichever party's delaying event consumes it first is the one it counts against.
Clause 31.3 permits rejection only for non-compliance with the contract, impracticability, missing required information, or a programme that does not realistically represent the Contractor's actual plans. If the Contractor does not submit a first programme, clause 50.5 lets the Project Manager withhold a quarter of the Price for Work Done to Date until it is submitted.
Gather's QS AI Agent reads each site diary entry as it is written and links actual progress, delay and compensation events back to the programme, so the clause 32 revision reflects what genuinely happened on site.
Accepted Programme: The programme identified in Contract Data or the latest accepted by the Project Manager under clause 31.3, the baseline for assessing compensation events.
Compensation event: The mechanism under clause 60.1, assessed for its time effect against the Accepted Programme. See compensation events.
NEC4 time limits: The reference table including the clause 31.3 two-week programme acceptance period. See NEC4 time limits.
Terminal float: The gap between the Contractor's Planned Completion and the contractual Completion Date, available to absorb delay from either party.
A programme under NEC4 is the Contractor's plan for carrying out the works, submitted for the Project Manager's acceptance under clause 31 and kept current through revisions under clause 32. Once accepted, it becomes the Accepted Programme, the baseline used to assess the time effect of compensation events.
Under clause 31.2, it must show the starting date, access dates, Key Dates, Completion Date, Planned Completion, the order and timing of operations and work by Others, float and time risk allowances, health and safety requirements, and information the Contractor needs from Others.
Only four, under clause 31.3: it does not comply with the contract, the plans shown are not practicable, it does not show the required information, or it does not represent the Contractor's plans realistically.
Under clause 50.5, the Project Manager can withhold a quarter of the Price for Work Done to Date in each payment certificate until a compliant first programme is submitted.
Terminal float is the gap between the Contractor's Planned Completion and the contractual Completion Date. Neither party owns it exclusively; it is available to absorb delay, and whichever party's delaying event consumes it first is the one it counts against.
Compensation events are assessed against the Accepted Programme (clauses 31-32). Gather's QS AI Agent links every site diary entry back to the programme automatically.