Legal aid contracts 2010: the tendering process

In this video Richard Miller, head of legal aid at the Law Society, discusses the Legal Services Commission's (LSC) procurement planning and tendering process for allocation of civil legal aid contracts for 2010.
Download the presentation slides (PDF, 75kb)
Download the presentation notes (PDF, 76kb)
Download the presence requirements and definition of office (PDF, 66kb)
Download the Key Performance Indicators checklist (PDF, 105kb)

The Law Society has produced an additional video that focuses on the terms of the civil legal aid contracts for 2010 and how they differ from the current contracts.
See the contract terms video

Update - March 2010

Please note that, since the recording of this presentation, we have received clarification from the LSC on the following issues:

1. Selection criteria

Most selection criteria for each category will be the same for all procurement areas, save for a few local variations relating to the 'presence' requirements.

2. Capacity assessment

About six weeks prior to the start of the contract, the LSC will ask all successful bidders to confirm that all the posts required to meet the capacity test are filled.

3. Multiple offices in a procurement area

You can submit a separate bid for each office within the procurement area. Each office must meet the essential and relevant selection criteria as well as the minimum matter starts requirements.

Alternatively you can submit a single bid to deliver services from one office that meets the essential, relevant selection criteria and minimum matter starts requirements.

See the LSC's Q&As, question 2.10 for more informaton.

Additional resources

The Law Society has produced a practice note (including a glossary of terms) to assist civil legal aid lawyers with the bid round for the 2010 contracts.
Read the civil legal aid practice note

The Law Society has also written to the LSC to clarify fundamental issues around the civil tendering round.
Read the correspondence

LSC contract tender application documents must be accessed and submitted via the LSC e-tendering portal.
Visit the e-tendering portal