Procurement of Housing and Debt Services and HPCDS Services from February 2022

The Legal Aid Agency (“LAA”) has identified the need to increase access to legal aid Housing and Debt Services in specific Housing and Debt Procurement areas and for specific Housing Possession Court Duty Schemes (“HPCDS”). Accordingly, it is inviting Applicants to submit a Tender to deliver:

a) Housing and Debt services in:

• Cambridgeshire
• City of Kingston upon Hull
• Cheshire
• Hampshire
• Portsmouth and Isle of Wight
• Shropshire
• Staffordshire
• South Tyneside
• Trafford
• Wigan

b) The following HPCDS:

• Chester
• Crewe
• Hull
• Mansfield
• Portsmouth
• Stafford

Applicants may bid for Housing and Debt Contract Work and/or HPCDS Contract Work through this procurement process. They are not obliged to bid for both Housing and Debt and HPCDS, although they should note that to be eligible to bid for an HPCDS Contract organisations must hold, or successfully bid for as part of this procurement process, a 2018 Standard Civil Contract with authorisation in the Housing and Debt Categories of Law.

Due to the urgent need for contracts to be in place to allow services to commence, the timescale from launch to the deadline for submission of tenders has been set at 21 days.

The Deadline for submitting Tenders is 5pm on 23 December 2021 (“Deadline”)

All Tenders must be completed and submitted using the eTendering system. This can be accessed either through a link on the tender pages of the LAA website or directly at www.legalaid.bravosolution.co.uk ↗.

Late submissions will not be considered under any circumstances. It is the Applicant’s sole responsibility to ensure that the LAA receives its Tender before the Deadline.

Housing and Debt Contracts will run from 1 February 2022 until 31 August 2022 (subject to the LAA’s right to extend for up to a further 12 months and the LAA’s rights of early termination)

For HPCDS, the LAA is seeking to award a HPCDS Contract for each Scheme to Applicants who can commence service delivery from 1 February 2022 (21 February 2022 for Mansfield HPCDS). The Contract Period runs until 30 September 2022 (subject to the LAA’s rights of early termination).