Official UK procurement notice
Provision of Defence Personal Injury Legal Services
Authority: The Education Authority (Central government)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionThe Education Authority seek to establish a Contract with up to 4 firms of
solicitors for the Provision of Defence Personal Injury Legal Services (i.e. defence of actual or anticipated High Court or County Court personal injury proceedings served upon the Education Authority, Libraries NI, a Board of Governors of a controlled school or a Board of Governors of an Irish Medium School or the Trustees / Board of Governors of a Catholic Maintained School - and if necessary the undertaking of a separate initial claims investigation function- as well as the defence or prosecution of an appeal from any court decision given in any such proceedings and/or the bringing of third party proceedings or associated contribution proceedings); the conduct of all such proceedings or investigative
function to be carried out in accordance with the Contractual Arrangements. This contract will be used on an as-and-when-required basis. EA does not make any commitment regarding the frequency or value of work to be allocated. Contractors shall understand that the workload is indeterminate. Accordingly, no form of exclusivity is conferred, nor is any volume guarantee granted by EA in relation to the provision of work to the Contractors. Although the majority of work will be allocated on a rotational basis, EA reserves the right at its absolute discretion to allocate all or any work under this contract to the Education Authority Solicitors or another legal services provider instead of
allocating the work to either of the Contractors.
CPV: Business services: law, marketing, consulting, recruitment, printing and security · Legal advisory and representation services · Legal advisory services · Legal representation services · Legal services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · value publishedLot #1AwardedPublished value£2,200,000
- Economic & financial standing
As per Tender documents
- Technical & professional ability
As per Tender documents
What it takes to wini
How this buyer will score bids.
The evaluation criteria and weights exactly as published on the notice, grouped by family (price, quality, social value and so on).
Evaluation split and conditions of participation as published; the tender pack may add morei
How this buyer will score bids.
The evaluation criteria and weights exactly as published on the notice, grouped by family (price, quality, social value and so on).
Published sub-criteria (2)
- Quality Criteria: 60%
- Cost Criteria: 40%
Published award criteria (2)
- Quality Criteria: AC1 - AC5 as per Tender documents
- Cost Criteria: AC6 as per Tender documents
- Economic & financial standing
As per Tender documents
- Technical & professional ability
As per Tender documents
- Price carries 40 of 100 points: a 10% discount moves about 4 points. The method statement decides this lot, not the discount.
Price arithmetic assumes straight proportional scoring; the tender pack may use another formula.
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Procedure method
- Open procedure
- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Procurement category
- Services
- Notice status
- Awarded
- Procurement threshold
- Above threshold (FTS publication)
- Regulatory regime
- Light touch regime
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Competitive procedure
- GPA / WTO covered
- Yes (GPA, CPTPP)
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 3 Oct 2025, 10:40 BST
- Last source update
- 30 Jun 2026, 12:02 BST
- Award evaluation window
- Submission end – 11 May 2026
- Authority reference
BSP-25-013- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-016632- Latest notice
- Contract details notice (UK7)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-05a79cFind a Tender- Contract terms summary
As per Tender documents
- Risks
As per Tender documents
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- 27 Mar 2026, 15:00 GMT
- Clarification deadline
- 18 Mar 2026, 15:00 GMT
- Submission channel
- Official e-sourcing portal
- Electronic submission
- Allowed
- Accepted languages
- en
Timeline
3 Oct 2025 → 1 Jul 2026 · 11 dates- Planning notice published388 days ago3 Oct 2025, 10:40 BST
- Market engagement373 days ago17 Oct 2025, 23:59 BST
Details of the PME Questionnaire can be found in the CfT for this exercise on eTendersNI - link here etendersni.gov.uk ↗
Interested participants should complete the questionnaire and upload by 3pm on 10 October 2025. Completed questionnaires must be returned via the eTendersNI Messaging function as an attachment. If you have any other questions that you would wish to raise EA are happy to consider these also, such queries should be submitted following the declaration on the questionnaire.
- Next notice expected361 days ago29 Oct 2025, 23:59 GMT
- Tender notice published243 days ago24 Feb 2026, 16:23 GMT
- Clarification questions by221 days ago18 Mar 2026, 15:00 GMT
- Submission deadline212 days ago27 Mar 2026, 15:00 GMT
- Award decision expected by167 days ago11 May 2026, 23:59 BST
- Assessment summaries sent132 days ago16 Jun 2026, 00:00 BST
- Standstill ends118 days ago29 Jun 2026, 23:59 BST
- Latest notice published118 days ago30 Jun 2026, 12:02 BST
- Contract starts117 days ago1 Jul 2026, 00:00 BST
Notice history
10 events · 4 releases on Find a Tender · since 3 Oct 2025- Preliminary market engagement notice published3 Oct 2025, 10:40 BSTUK2
- Tender notice published24 Feb 2026, 16:23 GMTUK4
- Published value published: £2,200,00024 Feb 2026, 16:23 GMT
- Status changed to active24 Feb 2026, 16:23 GMT
- Procurement method changed24 Feb 2026, 16:23 GMT
- Deadline published: 27 Mar 2026, 15:00 GMT24 Feb 2026, 16:23 GMT
- Contract award notice published18 Jun 2026, 16:18 BSTUK6
- Status changed to complete18 Jun 2026, 16:18 BST
- Contract details notice published30 Jun 2026, 12:02 BSTUK7
- Contract signature expected30 Jun 2026, 23:59 BSTscheduled
Routine re-releases (4)
- 2025-10: 1 release · 3 Oct 2025
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Published awards, contracts and bid statistics, not a forecast| Awarded to | Value | Date | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| DAC BEACHCROFT (N.IRELAND) LLPSME, KEOGHS NORTHERN IRELAND LLP, NAPIER & SONS SOLICITORS LTD, Tughans LLPSMEjoint awardBSP 25 013 Provision of Defence and Personal Injury Services1 Jul 2026 – 30 Jun 2030 | £2,200,000 | 16 Jun 2026 | Awarded |
Contracts
BSP 25 013 Provision of Defence and Personal Injury Services · DAC BEACHCROFT (N.IRELAND) LLPSME, KEOGHS NORTHERN IRELAND LLP, NAPIER & SONS SOLICITORS LTD, Tughans LLPSME
- Signed
- 30 Jun 2026
- Value
- £2,200,000
- Period
- 1 Jul 2026 – 30 Jun 2030
- Status
- active
Bid statistics published by the authority
| Bids | SME | VCSE | Valid bid range |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5final-stage tenders | 5 | 0 | — |
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
Bidders & participating suppliers
8 commercial parties on the notice- DAC BEACHCROFT (N.IRELAND) LLPAwarded supplier
- DAC BEACHCROFT (N.IRELAND) LLPAwarded supplier
- KEOGHS NORTHERN IRELAND LLPAwarded supplier
- KEOGHS NORTHERN IRELAND LLPAwarded supplier
- NAPIER & SONS SOLICITORS LTDAwarded supplier
- NAPIER & SONS SOLICITORS LTDAwarded supplier
- TUGHANS LLPAwarded supplier
- TUGHANS LLPAwarded supplier
Official documents & specifications (4)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Contract details notice Contract details notice on Find a Tender
- Contract award notice Contract award notice on Find a Tender
- Tender notice Tender notice on Find a Tender
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender