Procurement of Immigration Telephone Advice Services from 1 June 2021

On 10 December 2020, the Legal Aid Agency (“LAA”) published an invitation to tender for Civil Legal Aid, Immigration Telephone Advice Services (“ITA Services”) in England and Wales from 1 June 2021 on its e-Tendering portal. In accordance with the LAA’s right to do so pursuant to paragraph 5.24 of the Invitation to Tender Information for Applicants (“IFA”) document, the LAA cancelled the procurement process in its entirety on 30 April 2021. The LAA notified applicants and published a cancellation notice on its website on that date. For completeness a Contract Award Notice is also being published. This means that the LAA did not proceed with the award of any ITA Services contracts under that procurement process. The LAA received insufficient compliant tenders that met the minimum quality requirements. The procurement process therefore did not result in the award of any contracts to provide ITA Services from 1 June 2021. To ensure on-going access to ITA Services for Clients beyond 1 June 2021, the LAA has extended the existing contract with the current ITA Services provider (Optimus Law Ltd) for a period of 12 months to 31 May 2022. During this time the LAA and Ministry of Justice are undertaking a review of the ITA service to consider the commission of this service in the future. Further information can be found: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-telephone-advice-services-from-june-2021