Policy
7 January, 2008
Law Society issues response to LSC's intention to terminate Unified Contract
Civil fixed fee schemes not valid
The Law Society has issued a response to the Legal Services Commission's (LSC) announcement of their intention to terminate the Unified Contract. As far as the Law Society is concerned, the Unified Contract is ongoing, and there is no need to terminate it.
However, the Law Society's position remains that the civil fixed fee scheme, introduced in October 2007, and the new mental health fees, introduced from 1 January 2008, are not valid as they fail to meet the requirements of amendment clause 13.1, because they are incompatible with EU procurement law.
The LSC has now claimed that these amendments are permissible and can be treated as if they had been brought in under clause 13.2, which permits amendments to take account of legislative changes. The Law Society's lawyers have refuted this as being legally and factually unfounded and have threatened further legal action if the LSC fail to comply with the declaration from the Court of Appeal. This will go ahead even if the LSC decides to terminate all contracts and re-tender for the work.
The Law Society has stated that if the LSC proceeds with terminating the current contracts, it must:
- redesign the Unified Contract in a manner that complies with the procurement law obligations identified by the Court of Appeal
- devise a tendering scheme and conduct a tendering process
- complete all of these steps before the termination date of the current contracts
- undertake all of this work alongside the redesign of the Criminal contract from July 2008 and the development of its proposals for best value tendering for criminal work, including the BVT contract, which, although still subject to consultation, the LSC wish to introduce by January 2009.
For more information, see the Law Society press release Termination of Unified Contract: Law Society response.
The Law Society's letter to the LSC is available here.
The LSC's response to the Law Society letter is available here.
See also the related rightsnet policy new stories -
- LSC update on Unified Contract after Court of Appeal judgement: Intention to terminate Unified Contract and re-tender for the work (3 January, 2008)
- Unified Contract judgement - implications for providers: LSC must rescind October 2007 amendments (5 December, 2007)
- Judgement on the Law Society's challenge of the LSC's unified contract announced: Law Society wins appeal over LSC's right to unilaterally amend the contract (29 November, 2007)
- Law Society and LSC secure expedited Court of Appeal hearing : Following judgement in July on unified contract (12 October, 2007)
- LSC criminal contract changes delayed until January 2008: But civil fixed fees go ahead as planned (3 October, 2007)
- LSC announces appeal against the unified contract judicial review judgement: Decision to be challenged on their ability to amend 'technical specifications' (7 September, 2007)
- LSC 'confirm' their position on the unified contract: No plans to amend provisions in the short term (2 August, 2007)
- High Court upholds Law Society's objections to the unified contract: 'Judgement underlines the shortcomings of the LSC approach' to legal aid reform (30 July, 2007)
- LSC publishes draft Unified Contract Specification : Reforms to be implemented from October 2007 (18 July, 2007)
- Government faces double challenge over legal aid reforms: Law Society, CRE and ethnic minority law firms go to the high court (9 July, 2007)
- Law Society issues judicial review proceedings: LSC's right to unilaterally amend the unified contract to be challenged (27 April, 2007)
- Law Society threaten judicial review on unified contract: Legal Services Commission urged to delay contract implementation (27 March, 2007)
