Procurement at LAA

Procurement at LAA

Introduction

The Legal Aid Agency (‘LAA’) develops then undertakes procurement activity for contracts to provide or facilitate publicly funded specialist legal advice services in the areas of crime and certain civil categories. Services procured are to deliver services either in person (face-to-face) or remotely (primarily by telephone). LAA also places contracts to ensure the quality of specialist legal advice, specifically the administration of the LAA’s Standard Quality Mark and the delivery of Peer Review services.

Procurements are governed by relevant current public sector procurement legislation and are subject to different regulation dependent on the nature of the services and on the anticipated contract value.

LAA publish details of procurement opportunities and contract awards in the following places, where applicable:

  • Contracts Finder: Opportunities and awards over £10,000 are published on Contracts Finder.
  • Find a Tender Service (FTS): Opportunities and awards that exceed the relevant financial threshold are also published on FTS.

LAA Procurement Pipeline

The Legal Aid Agency’s procurement pipeline provides a forward look at our planned procurements and commercial activity over the next 3 years, including all anticipated procurements valued at £10,000 or more. Most LAA-let contracts are commissioned in line with the policy objectives set by the Ministry of Justice, reflecting ministerial priorities. Accordingly, it is this policy that will drive the timetable for procurement activity and the likely contract duration. Contracts are marked as being subject to policy decisions on our pipeline where the structure and timetable for commercial activity is not fully defined at the point of publication.

Neither the publication of this pipeline, nor any of the information presented in it, should be taken as a commitment or representation by the Legal Aid Agency (or any other organisation) to enter into a contractual arrangement, to proceed with a procurement or to proceed with the procurement route indicated. The information included within the pipeline provides an indication only as to the Legal Aid Agency’s planned procurements and commercial activity. Circumstances may change and we cannot guarantee that planned procurements will progress as detailed and/or that the requirements, contract value, and/or timeline of the same will be as stated. We cannot guarantee that all procurement opportunities will be available to all suppliers.

There may also be further procurement activity that takes place that we are not currently aware of and which may not appear on this procurement pipeline.

We will refresh our published pipeline at least annually. We will continue to publish details of our opportunities valued above £10,000 on Contracts Finder and, where appropriate, on the Find a Tender service.

The pipeline can be found here:

LAA eTendering portal

Organisations wishing to tender for a contract with the LAA must use its eTendering portal to respond to advertised procurement opportunities. The eTendering portal is free to use. You have to be registered and logged in to respond to a tender opportunity. Tender documents are available both in the relevant opportunity within the eTendering portal and on the LAA Tenders page (see below).

If you’re using the portal for the first time, read the technical support guidance. Where you have registered for a procurement opportunity through the portal, questions should be asked through the relevant portal message board.

A helpline has been set up to support you if you have technical problems with the e-tendering system: help@bravosolution.co.uk; 0800 069 8630.

Current tenders

All current LAA procurement opportunities can be viewed on the Tenders page.

From the Tender page you can access more detail about each LAA procurement opportunity, including latest updates about new and ongoing opportunities.

You can also subscribe to the Legal Aid Bulletin

It is a fortnightly e-mail service which typically includes:

  • invitations to tender
  • contract guidance and notices
  • forms guidance
  • code changes
  • consultation launches and responses

Closed tenders

Closed tenders can be viewed on the Tenders page.

Tenders prior to June 2014 are available for reference on The National Archives website: search the UK government web archive.