NEC Supply Contract: Who is a Subcontractor?

NEC3 and NEC4 Contracts General
1

Under the Supply Contract the definition of a Subcontractor is “organisation who has a contract with the Supplier to 1) supply part of the goods and services or 2) provide plant and materials which the person or organisation has wholly or partly designed specifically for the goods.

If I am making precast concrete units and have a concrete supplier and someone providing steel reinforcement, do either fit the definition of a Subcontractor and hence need accepting?

Judging by the wording of 2) it sounds like off the shelf materials not designed specifically for the works should not need acceptance, but could they not be argued that they are supplying part of the goods and therefore fall under 1) although I assume not? And if not, what is 1) specifically to pick up?

2

I agree with you on point 2.

On point 1, ‘goods’ is in italics, so is written Contract Data part 1 by the Purchaser. So if you subcontract says that the Supplier is to provide say “concrete for >insert main contract ‘goods’ wording” or something similar, then I think they probably would count as a Subcontractor and hence need accepting.

At the other extreme, if it was a standard contract to supply concrete which could be used on any precast units, then probably not.