Provision of Law Trove Access

It is proposed, under the Procurement Act 2023, that Direct Awards are permissible under specific circumstances, where competition is not feasible or practical. This justification is that of Schedule 5, Single Suppliers, Section 5 (a)(b):

"The following conditions are met in relation to the public contract

(a) Due to a particular supplier having intellectual property rights or other exclusive rights, only that supplier can supply the goods, services or works required, and

(b) There are no reasonable alternatives to those goods, services or works."

As noted in the prior rationale, OUP is the leading publisher of legal educational materials and Law Trove provides fully searchable access to approx. 200 law texts. The service Subscription to OUP's Law Trove is a unique one resulting from OUP's dominant position in the legal publishing field.

Other Law providers, such as LexisNexis and Westlaw, provide access to a wide range of legal materials including legislation, case law, legal research, legal journals and other materials, but which do not cover the contents of Law Trove. DMU's LLB programmes and requirements can be met with the utilisation of OUP's Law Trove.

The direct award ensures that the project remains consistent to budget, appropriate for the LLB courses syllabus and avoiding the potential delays and additional costs associated with seeking multiple alternative providers. Whereas OUP's Law trove affords a single point of access for all required materials