• About us
   
• About legal aid
   
• Community Legal Service (CLS)
   
• Criminal Defence Service (CDS)
   

Civil contracts

On this page:

• The Unified Contract (Civil)  
• 2010 Standard Civil Contract
• Tendering for a 2010 Standard Civil Contract 
• Other civil contracts
• Agreement with the Law Society
• Other guidance
• For more information

The Unified Contract

All our civil legal aid providers must sign a contract with us. Our Unified Contract (Civil) regulates how civil legal aid work is funded by the Community Legal Service (CLS). This makes sure we get competent, quality assured, best value contract work.

We keep providers updated about information affecting the contract via the CLS news page.

2010 Standard Civil Contract

The current Unified Contract (Civil) will be extended to 13 October 2010. The new 2010 Standard Civil Contract will come into force on 14 October 2010. Organisations will need to apply for and be awarded the new contract in order to carry out any new civil controlled and licensed work from 14 October 2010.

Standard terms and specification of the new 2010 Standard Civil Contract are available on the 2010 Standard Civil Contract page.

Tendering for a 2010 Standard Civil Contract

As announced in July, the current Unified Contract (Civil) will be extended for 6 months so will now expire on 13 October 2010. Providers will then need to successfully for a new 2010 to 2013 contract to work in any civil category.

The tender process for Immigration contracts has now closed. Other tender processes are now open, or will open shortly. To find out more about how to tender for a new contract, including the deadlines, please go to our Tendering pages.

Following a 12-week consultation, Civil Bid Rounds for 2010 Contracts, we published our final policy in our response to consultation in June 2009. This sets out the approach we will take to the procurement and delivery of legal aid services from 2010 onwards.

Other civil contracts

The Unified Contract (Civil) replaces the Family Mediation and Immigration contracts. Cases started before 1 Apr 07 operate under the General Civil Contract.

Agreement with the Law Society

In Apr 08 the LSC, Ministry of Justice and the Law Society reached agreement on the Court of Appeal's judgment on the Unified Contract. We have agreed a clear way forward.

Other guidance

Visit other pages on this website for guidance on working under the contract including:

• pay rates and schemes
• quality and performance
• The Funding Code
• points of principle
• public interest reports

For more information

Visit the About us > Transforming legal aid pages for more information about legal aid reform.

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Last updated: 26 February 2010