Public Sector Legal Services

This framework has been established to provide a simple and compliant route to market for a range of legal services requirements primarily to the wider public sector. It covers a wide range of commonly needed areas of law, including contracts, dispute resolution and litigation, contracts and corporate law. Comprising 3 lots the framework offers both general and more specific legal services.

Updates

08/12/22: Any central government department or executive agency wishing to access this framework agreement must follow the Government Legal Department exceptions process. You can get a copy of the process by emailing GLASexceptionprocess@ governmentlegal.gov.uk

Description

Replacing RM3788 it provides a simple route to market for buying a wide range of legal services. These are split across 3 lots.

Some of the many legal specialisms available to access through this agreement includes:

• employment
• pensions
• education law
• health and safety
• licencing law
• immigration
• property and construction
• litigation/dispute resolution
• social housing

Benefits

• a comprehensive list of legal services including a specialist lot covering Transport Rail
• SME friendly with access to regional suppliers
• flexible call off terms available using both direct award, and further competition
• highly competitive hourly rates for direct awards and further competitions
• streamlined and simplified supplier selection through to contract award using a bespoke digitally enabled award support tool.
• specialist scope for a wide range of specialism
• value added benefits are available including two hours free legal advice
• simplified tender documents templates and standard framework terms and conditions agreed by all framework suppliers.

Carbon Reduction

All suppliers for this agreement have committed to comply with the Procurement Policy Note 06/21: 'Taking account of Carbon Reduction Plans in the procurement of major government contracts' as required. If a supplier is required to publish a carbon reduction plan, you can find it on their individual supplier details page.

Products and suppliers

There are 57 suppliers on this agreement

Lot 1a: Full Service Provision - England and Wales

Lot 1b: Full Service Provision - Scotland

Lot 1c: Full Service Provision - Northern Ireland

Lot 2a: General Service Provision - England and Wales

Lot 2b: General Service Provision - Scotland

Lot 2c: General Service Provision - Northern Ireland

Lot 3: Full Service: Transport Rail - Full UK

How to buy

Before using this agreement you will need to read our Buyers Guide. This document will help you to select the right award procedure for your needs.

You can select suppliers capable of meeting your needs by using the digital filtering tool (or the Capability Matrix which can be found under the documents tab) . This tool allows you to filter suppliers by specialism.

You can buy services under this agreement in two ways:

• further competition
• direct award

Before taking part in either a further competition or direct award, you will need to complete framework schedule 6 (order form template and call-off schedules).

Apart from framework schedule 6, there are no templates that you need to complete as part of your call-off procedure. You may use your own internal tender documents as part of your bid pack.

You can use our eSourcing tool to run your further competition or direct award. If this is your first time using the eSourcing suite, you will need to register an account. If you have already registered, you can log into your eSourcing account.

You should check your own internal policies and processes to make sure they follow your standard operating procedures.

Further competition

To award a call-off contract through further competition you should:

1. develop a clear specification of your needs
2. use the available tools to shortlist the number of suppliers you invite to bid, where suitable
3. use framework schedule 6 (order form template and call-off schedules) as the basis of your call-off contract
4. amend or refine your contract deliverables, including liability cap
5. develop your further competition award criteria, including your intended pricing mechanism
6. this will form the basis of your decision to award your call-off contract
7. invite all identified suppliers to submit a tender in writing by publishing your tender documentation in line with the Public Contract Regulations
8. this can be by email or through your preferred e-Sourcing tool
9. find contact details for each supplier representative in the RM6179 supplier contacts document
10. set a time limit for the submission of tenders, (take into account the time needed to create and submit tenders and the complexity of your needs)
11. keep each tender confidential until the time limit set out for the return of tenders has expired
12. apply your published award criteria to each submitted tender
13. award your call-off contract by sending a completed and signed framework schedule 6 to the successful supplier
14. suppliers should promptly sign and return this document (this can be done electronically)
15. provide unsuccessful suppliers with written feedback on why their tenders were unsuccessful
16. publish your contract on Contracts Finder for transparency purposes

Direct award

To direct award under this agreement you should:

1. develop a clear specification of your needs
2. determine which suppliers are capable of meeting your needs by reviewing the capability matrix
3. apply the direct award criteria to the prospectuses for each capable supplier to establish which supplier provides the most economically advantageous solution
4. contact the supplier that you have selected and provide them with your specification so that they can complete their conflict of interest checks and confirm that they have the relevant capability and capacity
5. award the call-off contract with the supplier by sending a completed and signed framework schedule 6 (order form template and call-off schedules)
6. suppliers should promptly sign and return this (this can be done electronically)