The LAA has published a statement setting out its long terms plans for re-tendering and harmonising civil contracts. It says:
It is our intention to align all face to face civil contracts from April 2018.
New contracts in relation to welfare benefits, immigration removal centres and HPCDS will be awarded to end on 31 March 2018. All existing standard civil contracts (except Mediation) that are due to end before 31 March 2018 will be extended through to this date.
To enable this alignment it is also our intention to end any contract that runs past 31 March 2018 early (ie actions against the police etc, clinical negligence and public law).
The only exception to this is the 2014 welfare benefits contracts, which will be re-tendered in 2016 for new contracts to run from 1 November 2016.
So it is likely that there will be a major civil procurement exercise in late 2017. We don’t yet know what form that will take or whether there will be a competitive element.
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