ID 1032027/L8 Legal Services for Strategic Partner Services & School Management System Solution Project

CPV: Legal services

Procedure method

Award procedure without prior publication of a call for competition

Legal basis

CELEX · 32014L0024 Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (Directive 2014/24/EU)

Procurement category

Services

Notice status

Awarded without competition

Procurement threshold

Unspecified in notice

Regulatory regime

Standard

Commercial structure

Stand-alone contract (no framework)

Competition type

Direct award (no call for competition)

GPA / WTO covered

Yes (GPA)

Recurring procurement

Unspecified in notice

First published

24 Jul 2026, 17:12 BST

Last source update

24 Jul 2026, 17:12 BST

FTS notice number

2026/S 000-070491

Classification (CPV)

Legal services

Delivery area

Northern Ireland (UKN)

Official registry OCID

ocds-h6vhtk-06d3b8 Find a Tender

Why no open competition

The procurement falls outside the scope of application of the directive

Published justification

This contract was a call-off contract awarded under Lot 8 of the CPD Framework ID 1032027 for Legal Services and commenced on 11th January 2022 for a period of three years. The contract was subsequently modified to extend its term for a further period of 2 years until 10 January 2027 and to increase the value to cover this additional contract period, and a Modificaiton Notice was published to the market on 10 January 2025 (2025/S 000-000917).

It has become necessary to further modify this contract until 31 March 2028 and to uplift the contract value by 50 percent of the original contract value (i.e. £462,500) to support the ongoing procurement of this requirement. The modification is permissible under the grounds of Regulation 72 (1) (b) of the PCR, 2015, and meets the following conditions;

(b) for additional works, services or supplies by the original contractor that have become necessary and were not included in the initial procurement, where a change of contractor—

(i) cannot be made for economic or technical reasons such as requirements of interchangeability or interoperability with existing equipment, services or installations procured under the initial procurement, or

(ii) would cause significant inconvenience or substantial duplication of costs for the contracting authority, provided that any increase in price does not exceed 50% of the value of the original contract;

For technical reasons a change in supplier is not possible at this stage. The provider has been contracted to provide legal advice and support on this requirement since January 2022 and has built up critical knowledge and understanding which will be required to proceed with this complex strategic procurement exercise required over the next 2 years. To change supplier at this critical time would result in loss of expertise, knowledge and impact the project timelines significantly and would result in substantial duplication of costs for the EA. The contract is required to ensure continuity of legal advice and support in relation to development of critical work. Retaining the existing provider will enable the contracting authority to access consistent, informed, and timely legal services based on the supplier’s established understanding of the procurement environment and associated risks. EA has already issued the PSQ stage to market on 8th June 2026 via UK4 Tender Notice 2026/S 000-053968 which subsequently closed on 17th July 2026.

The additional value is required to cover services in relation to support on the procurement.The value of this potential modification is £462,500 and does not exceed 50% of the original contract value.

• Carson McDowell LLPAwarded supplier Belfast, Northern IrelandContact emailShow contact details

No document links were published on the notice.