What does NEC4 clause 60.1 mean?

Clause 60.1 is the list of compensation events in the NEC4 Engineering and Construction Contract. A compensation event is an event that is not the Contractor's risk under the contract and for which the contract gives the Contractor a change in the Prices, the Completion Date or a Key Date, or any combination of them. The list is closed: an event is a compensation event only if it falls within one of the twenty-one numbered paragraphs of clause 60.1, an additional event stated in the Contract Data under clause 60.1(21), or an event that the chosen main or secondary Option adds, such as the Contractor's suspension under Option Y(UK)2 at clause Y2.4. Nothing in clause 60.1 pays money by itself. Entitlement is realised through the procedure that follows it: notification under clause 61.3 by the Contractor, or by the Project Manager where the event arises from the Project Manager's or the Supervisor's own instructions and decisions, the Project Manager's decision under clause 61.4, a quotation under clause 62, assessment of the change to the Prices under clause 63.1 on the effect on actual and forecast Defined Cost plus the resulting Fee, the Project Manager's own assessment under clause 64 where the procedure fails, and implementation under clause 66. The main Option decides what Defined Cost is, through clause 11.2(23) for Options A and B and clause 11.2(24) for Options C, D, E and F, and the Contract Data supplies the access dates, the weather data and place, the periods for reply and any additional events that several paragraphs depend on. What most often goes wrong is a Contractor treating any change or loss as a compensation event without matching it to a numbered paragraph, and a Project Manager rejecting an event under clause 61.4 without saying which of the four grounds applies. Any delay to the Completion Date is assessed separately under clause 63 and sits with the programming expert.