Policy
21 April, 2008
LSC publish 5 year route map for civil legal aid
Roll-out of BVT from April 2013
The Legal Services Commission (LSC) has published the route map for the development of civil legal aid contracts for the next five years.
The outline timeline and milestones for the contract award process and best value tendering (BVT) are as follows:
| April 2008 |
Civil Route map published | |
| September - November 2008 |
Consultation : publication of consultation document, and briefings to legal aid providers | |
| February 2009 | Publication of summary consultation responses | |
| Spring 2009 | Consultation paper on BVT in civil legal aid | |
| April 2009 | Publication of final fee schemes, and bid criteria | |
| May - June 2009 | Expressions of Interest for April 2010 contracts | |
| July 2009 | Notification of award of contracts in 'one-stage areas' | |
| July - September 2009 | Bid period for 'two-stage areas' | |
| December 2009 | Notification of award of contract in 'two stage areas' | |
| April 2010 | New contracts and fees go live | |
| 2010 - 2011 | Trials of BVT begin in small number of geographical areas | |
| From April 2013 | Possible roll-out of civil BVT |
NB: 'One-stage areas' will be those procurement areas where the LSC considers that it can award a contract to all those that have completed an Expression of Interest and meet any essential criteria, without the ned for a further stage. 'Two stage areas' will be those procurement areas where the LSC considers it needs to choose between bidders by assessing them against desirable criteria.
For more information, see the LSC press release The next five years for civil legal aid contracts.
The document Civil Legal Aid Contracts: The Next Five Years is available here.
See also the related rightsnet policy new stories -
- LSC launch 'Delivery Transformation' consultation : Modernising business processes to save £7 million per year (14 April, 2008)
- LSC, Law Society and MoJ reach agreement on future of Unified Contract: Increase of 2% on 'fixed fees' (3 April, 2008)
- LSC update on Unified Contract after Court of Appeal judgement: Intention to terminate Unified Contract and re-tender for the work (3 January, 2008)
- LSC announce next steps in legal aid reform programme: Best Value Tendering offers the 'best way forward' (10 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)
- LSC announces appeal against the unified contract judicial review judgement: Decision to be challenged on their ability to amend 'technical specifications' (7 September, 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)
- The Way Ahead – Legal Aid Reform: DCA and LSC set out vision for the future of legal aid (28 November, 2006)
