Councillors and committees

Issue - meetings

Award of Framework Agreements and Call Off Contracts for the Provision of Legal Services

Meeting: 18/12/2018 - Cabinet (Item 216)

216 Award of Framework Agreements and Call Off Contracts for the Provision of Legal Services pdf icon PDF 95 KB

Additional documents:

Decision:

RESOLVED:

 

That Surrey County Council award the external legal services framework for 3 years, plus a 3 year optional extension period (total 6 year term) and any respective call off contracts, in conjunction with the Orbis Public Law authorities.

 

Reason for decision:

 

The Council had a framework agreement in place for the provision of external legal services (Surrey Provision of External Legal Services (SPELS) Framework), which was due to expire on 28 February 2019.

 

The new framework agreement brought together the requirements of the OPL authorities and Surrey and Sussex District and Borough Councils. The potential value of spend across all the authorities (approximately £60m) meant that the tender offered an attractive opportunity for the market and greater economies of scale.

 

The framework agreement would enable the OPL authorities to:

 

     a.          cover the provision of external legal services advice and support across Surrey, East Sussex, West Sussex and the city of Brighton & Hove;

     b.          ensure an up to date specification that meets OPL’s requirements;

     c.          deliver a cost effective service and enable instructions to be issued to external legal providers much faster than if no framework existed;

     d.          obtain up to date competitive rates;

     e.          achieve savings through efficiencies and monitoring usage more closely;

      f.          offer OPL staff more flexibility and access to a wider range of specialist expertise.

 

The new framework agreement had been procured through a full tender procedure with a thorough evaluation process, which had identified that to award framework agreement and call off contracts to a number of providers would provide Surrey County Council with the best value for money.

 

[The decisions on this item can be called in by the Corporate Overview Select Committee]

 

Minutes:

The Leader of the Council introduced this report that described the procurement process for a new framework agreement that would give access to external specialised legal advice and support, from solicitors and barristers in the form of both transactional case work and counsel/advocacy on a wide variety of areas of law for the Orbis Public Law authorities. He emphasised that there was no commitment on the Council.

 

RESOLVED:

 

That Surrey County Council award the external legal services framework for three years, plus a three year optional extension period (total six year term) and any respective call off contracts, in conjunction with the Orbis Public Law authorities.

 

Reason for decision:

 

The Council had a framework agreement in place for the provision of external legal services (Surrey Provision of External Legal Services (SPELS) Framework), which was due to expire on 28 February 2019.

 

The new framework agreement brought together the requirements of the Orbis Public Law (OPL) authorities and Surrey and Sussex District and Borough Councils. The potential value of spend across all the authorities (approximately £60m) meant that the tender offered an attractive opportunity for the market and greater economies of scale.

 

The framework agreement would enable the OPL authorities to:

 

    a.        cover the provision of external legal services advice and support across Surrey, East Sussex, West Sussex and the city of Brighton & Hove;

    b.        ensure an up to date specification that meets OPL’s requirements;

    c.        deliver a cost effective service and enable instructions to be issued to external legal providers much faster than if no framework existed;

    d.        obtain up to date competitive rates;

    e.        achieve savings through efficiencies and monitoring usage more closely;

     f.        offer OPL staff more flexibility and access to a wider range of specialist expertise.

 

The new framework agreement had been procured through a full tender procedure with a thorough evaluation process, which had identified that to award framework agreement and call off contracts to a number of providers would provide Surrey County Council with the best value for money.