Crown Commercial Service to conduct market engagement on £650m ‘Legal Panel for Government’

The CCS said it wanted to “to signal an intention to procure a new legal services agreement and to that end to commence market engagement within the legal market”.

It added: "It is intended that this agreement will be the recommended vehicle for all legal services in respect of a number of general specialisms, finance specialisms, complex projects, trade law service and rail legal services, as required by UK Central Government Departments."

The new framework would replace the following live CCS agreements:

• Legal Services
• Rail Legal Services
• Trade Law Panel

The CCS plans to hold market engagement sessions during early 2024 with suppliers interested in bidding for the resulting panel contracts.

The final lotting structure of the new framework will be determined as part of the market engagement.

The approach to market date is given as 27 January 2025.

The contract would start on 2 September 2025 and run until 1 September 2029.

The estimated legal spend is £162.5m for each of the following financial years: 2025/26, 2026/2027, 2027/2028 and 2028/2029.