Decision - Procurement of External Legal Services Framework

Brighton and Hove Cabinet Decided 17 Oct 2024 · effective 26 Oct 2024 approved Key decision GET /api/coverage

Decision maker

Cabinet

Report author

Adrian Conley

Published

18 Oct 2024

Reference

7308

As published

the council's own words, unedited

This report proposes the re-procurement of a framework agreement to enable the Council to access external legal advice at preferential rates and to our specified standards. It is a joint Procurement with Surrey County Council, East Sussex County Council, West Sussex County Council and others which is therefore attractive to bidders because of its scale and reach.

1) That Cabinet approves the re-procurement of the external Legal Services Framework as outlined in Section 3.11 of the report and grants delegated authority to the Assistant Director of Legal and Democratic Services to: (i) Take all steps necessary or incidental to undertake the re-procurement process; (ii) Award the framework agreement and any respective call-off contracts; (iii) Authorise any modifications to the framework agreement during the framework term.

Parsed from the document

gpt-5.6-luna-2026-07-09 · 3580/1377 tokens · 10503ms · parsed 9 Sep 2026 15:34

Everything below was read out of a PDF by a model It is useful and it is not authoritative. The document it came from is linked in the rail, and where the two disagree the document is right.

Cabinet was asked to approve the joint re-procurement of an external Legal Services Framework for four years, involving Brighton & Hove City Council, Surrey County Council, East Sussex County Council and West Sussex County Council. The proposed framework would have a maximum value of £25 million across four years, but would not commit the councils to any spending.

Recommendation

Approve the re-procurement of the external Legal Services Framework and delegate authority to the Assistant Director of Legal and Democratic Services to undertake the procurement, award the framework agreement and call-off contracts, and authorise modifications during the framework term.

Financial impact

The new framework would have a value of up to £25 million over four years. Brighton & Hove City Council's estimated spend through the current framework is £3.486 million across four years, equivalent to approximately £0.870 million per year, with no commitment to spend under the new framework.

Ward affected

All Wards

Decision maker

Cabinet

Date in document

17 Oct 2024

Stakeholders named

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Brighton & Hove City CouncilSurrey County CouncilEast Sussex County CouncilWest Sussex County CouncilDistrict and Borough Councils within Surrey, East Sussex and West SussexExternal legal services providersSolicitors and barristersResidents and vulnerable people requiring council services

Next steps

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Undertake the joint re-procurement process.
Invite and evaluate bids for the framework lots.
Award the framework agreement and any call-off contracts.
Review usage, benefits and performance with partner authorities every six months.

Precedents

not built

"Decided elsewhere" is not built Finding the same decision in other councils needs semantic matching over decision text, which is part of the search rewrite. Until then, the council's own decisions list is the way through.