Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council (Sefton) as lead contracting authority for the North West Legal Consortium wishes to procure a framework contract to provide external legal services from solicitors to support the in-house provision of its member organisations.

The estimated total value of purchases for the entire duration of the framework agreement is expected to be worth up to 15 000 000 GBP. This figure is an estimate only and may be exceeded. However, no guarantee is given as to any level of business to be awarded through the framework.

Lot 1: Civil Litigation, Prosecutions and Regulatory.

To include construction litigation, negligence proceedings, possession proceedings, licensing appeals and employment advice and litigation.

Lot 2: Property, Planning and Environment.

To include all conveyancing, regeneration and highways advice.

Lot 3: Corporate Governance, Ethical Standards and Information Law.

To include organisational governance issues, data protection advice including advice on use of social media by councillors or third parties involving the Council/council officers.

Lot 4: Projects, Procurement and Commercial.

To include all commercial contracts and company law. Transport regulation including light rail/tram, heavy rail and bus, ticketing, concessionary fares, state aid, competition law, telecommunications, information technology, digital infrastructure and communications, smart technology, construction contracts (NEC and JCT) and construction adjudication/arbitration.

Lot 5: Social Care and Education.

To include social care and education.

Eligibility for appointment to partner status will be determined by reference to bidders’ rankings after selection and award. Only eligible bidders will be invited to interview in the final partner status stage of the award process. An eligible bidder for partner status is a bidder who both

(a) expresses an interest in partner status and submits its offering for that; and

(b) is successfully appointed to at least 3 out of the previous 5 lots.

All eligible bidders will be ranked according to their added value offer and a maximum of 8 taken through to interview stage. Bidders will be under no obligation to accept partner status appointment should they not wish to do so. Up to 4 bidders will be given partner status on the framework. Partners will have their branding on the consortium website.