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Is it a valid compensation event? · Module 1 · Lesson 2 of 4

What the Scope is and who changes it

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Why it matters

On 5 January 2026 Leila, Merrow Vale's commercial manager, reads what binds it

Merrow Vale's GBP 8,400,000 price relied on all four. Only some are Scope.

The specification and drawings
Merrow Vale's design statement
Three borehole logs
Tender emails
Which are Scope, and who may change them?

Source: ECC 11.2(16), 14.3.

The rule

Scope describes the works or limits how

Nothing else is Scope, however much the price relied on it.

Part one:
Part two:
Every since the Contract Date
The

It “specifies and describes the works” (11.2(16)), or sets a on the work.

Not Scope: Site Information, Activity Schedule, programme, tender emails.

Source: ECC 11.2(16), 11.2(18), 14.1. ECC Option C 55.2. Contract Data parts one and two.

The rule

Four things make a change count, then two follow

Dana is the Project Manager. All four must hold.

  1. Dana instructs14.2, 14.3
  2. In a lasting form13.1
  3. Through the portal13.2
  4. It changes the Scope60.1(1)
Merrow Vale obeys

A duty (27.3).

Dana notifies

With it (61.1).

Or Merrow Vale notifies it

No eight-week bar (61.3).

Source: ECC 13.1, 13.2, 14.2, 14.3, 27.3, 60.1(1), 61.1, 61.3.

See it on the project

Dana or her named delegate can change the Scope, so can anyone else at Aldermere?

Decide each, then open it.

“may give an instruction to the Contractor which changes the Scope” (14.3)

Tom Barrow, the ?

No. He checks the work, and Dana has delegated nothing to him (14.2).

Aldermere Water, the Client, by letter?

No. Only the , or a delegate her notice names, can (14.2, 14.3).

The Client's designer, by email?

No. A consultant's email is not an instruction. Dana would have to instruct the detail.

A decision at an early warning meeting?

Not yet. Dana instructs it when she issues the revised , within a week (15.4).

Source: ECC 14.2, 14.3, 15.4.

Try it

Sort seven Aldermere papers into Scope and not Scope

Ask where each paper sits. The reason shows after each answer.

Paper 1 of 7

…

Source: ECC 11.2(16), 11.2(18), 14.1, 20.1. ECC Option C 55.2.

Quick check · Try it

Two questions on what you have just covered

Scope, then the portal.

Quick checkPick an answer to see if you are right and why
1Which Scope is a new instruction tested against, after several changes?
The listed documents as they stood at the Contract Date
The listed documents plus every instruction before it
Merrow Vale's Accepted Programme on the day of the instruction
2Dana emails Raj, Merrow Vale's planner, outside the portal. When does her instruction take effect?
When Raj opens and reads the email on site
Once it is sent through the portal
When Raj replies to confirm he has it

2 questions to answer

Source: ECC 11.2(16), 13.2, 14.1.

Recap

Check where a paper sits and who sent it before acting on it

Three habits that keep the Scope file right.

On Monday at work

  • List the documents the Contract Data names as Scope (11.2(16)).
  • Add each instruction to it on the day it arrives.
  • Act only on Dana's instructions through the portal, or a named delegate's (14.3).

In the Toolkit: NEC4 Compensation Event Register (ECC and ECS) (Excel) Members

Next lesson: Test the instruction against the Scope

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Independent course material. It is not published or endorsed by NEC. Clause references are to the NEC4 Engineering and Construction Contract, June 2017 with amendments January 2023. The project and the people are invented. Short quotes from NEC4 (© NEC 2017) and the FIDIC Red Book (© FIDIC 2017) are used for review and comment. Read the full clauses in your own copy of the contract.

Source: ECC 11.2(16), 13.2, 14.2, 14.3.

Go deeper (optional)

Key Dates and delegation each have their own rule

Two points that catch people out.

Dana moves a Key Date. Is that a 60.1(1) event?

No. She changes a by instruction too, but it is a separate under 60.1(4).

ECC 14.3, 60.1(4)

What must a delegation notice say?

It names the and gives “details of the actions being delegated” (14.2). NEC4 added this rule.

ECC 14.2

Source: ECC 13.2, 14.2, 15.4, 60.1(1), 60.1(4).