Tender

LEGAL DOCUMENT TOOLKIT DEVELOPMENT

THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES

This public procurement record has 2 releases in its history.

TenderUpdate

26 Mar 2026 at 11:47

Tender

05 Mar 2026 at 10:16

Summary of the contracting process

The National Archives in the United Kingdom has initiated a public procurement process to develop a Legal Document Toolkit, focusing on enhancing tools for managing legal information. This tender, titled "LEGAL DOCUMENT TOOLKIT DEVELOPMENT," falls under the industry category of research and development consultancy services, with procurement taking place across various UK regions. The process is currently in the tender update stage. Interested parties must submit their tenders by 7th April 2026. The contract is expected to be awarded by 18th May 2026, with the project commencing on 1st June 2026. The procurement is conducted using an open, competitive flexible procedure, highlighting a maximum contract expenditure of £2 million over a potential span of five years, including extensions.

This procurement offers substantial opportunities for consultancy firms with expertise in developing business models, especially those familiar with the UK legal sector. Businesses that can provide innovative solutions for technology transfer and market exploitation within the public domain are particularly well-suited. The successful consultancy partner will collaborate with The National Archives to explore and validate potential exploitation opportunities, ensuring alignment with strategic objectives. This endeavour could significantly boost business growth for firms capable of navigating public sector intricacies and contributing valuable insights into emergent legal technologies.

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How relevant is this notice?

Notice Title

LEGAL DOCUMENT TOOLKIT DEVELOPMENT

Notice Description

The National Archives has developed a variety of different tools for working with legal information through our work delivering the legislation.gov.uk, Lawmaker and Find Case Law services. The umbrella term for these tools is the 'Legal Document Toolkit'. There are specific tools which can securely receive, represent, store, transform, query, analyse, enrich, revise and publish legal documents of different types. The Toolkit has powerful drafting tools, both the new browser-based Lawmaker and an older but sophisticated Word-based template. The toolkit also has a variety of data transformation and enrichment tools. These enable us to take legal documents in hard to work with formats and convert them into machine friendly data formats - ideal for computational analysis using AI approaches. The toolkit has analysis tools, including a domain specific query language for legislation, the first (and we think only) one of its kind. An initial assessment of the Legal Document Toolkit has been carried out to identify potential tech transfer/exploitation opportunities, to test those opportunities against potential markets, consider their value and impact, and look at potential delivery models. The initial analysis revealed a list of ten potential opportunities and worked to validate and prioritise these based on how easy they would be to develop, the potential market value and impact, and how closely they might align with The National Archives wider strategies. The top-ranking ideas were then further developed to flesh out what might be required to produce something market ready. This initial work has identified a range of opportunities of varying type that could be taken forward however, it has also made clear that a considerable amount of work needs to be done to realise the benefits. Ideas need to be further developed, detailed market analysis and trials carried out, business models explored and identified, and investment options scoped and tested. Although the initial focus will be on the top-prioritised opportunities, we will want to test ones further down the list over time as well as any new ones that emerge either as a direct result of this work or by further innovation from within The National Archives. This process will take a number of years and will be sporadic, as funding for each separate opportunity will have to be secured based on the details of each instance. We hope to identify a consultancy partner that will be able to work alongside our in-house teams and provide expertise and guidance around exploitation opportunities in this sector. They will help develop propositions, test these within the appropriate markets, identify potential delivery partners and advise on appropriate business models. Expertise of building investable business propositions is essential, especially in the public sector. Knowledge and experience of the UK legal sector would also be highly desirable. We intend to award a contract for an initial period of 3 years, with two extension options of up to 12 months each. We anticipate that the maximum expenditure over the duration of the contract period (including any extension options) will be PS2m including VAT (i.e. an average maximum expenditure of PS400,000 per year).

Lot Information

Lot 1

Renewal: Two extension options of up to 12 months each.

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-h6vhtk-0662b6
Publication Source
Find A Tender Service
Latest Notice
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/027839-2026
Current Stage
Tender
All Stages
Tender

Procurement Classification

Notice Type
UK4 - Tender Notice
Procurement Type
Standard
Procurement Category
Services
Procurement Method
Open
Procurement Method Details
Competitive flexible procedure
Tender Suitability
SME
Awardee Scale
Not specified

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

CPV Divisions

73 - Research and development services and related consultancy services


CPV Codes

73200000 - Research and development consultancy services

Notice Value(s)

Tender Value
£1,666,666 £1M-£10M
Lots Value
£1,666,666 £1M-£10M
Awards Value
Not specified
Contracts Value
Not specified

Notice Dates

Publication Date
26 Mar 20261 months ago
Submission Deadline
7 Apr 2026Expired
Future Notice Date
Not specified
Award Date
Not specified
Contract Period
31 May 2026 - 31 May 2029 3-4 years
Recurrence
Not specified

Notice Status

Tender Status
Active
Lots Status
Active
Awards Status
Not Specified
Contracts Status
Not Specified

Contracting Authority (Buyer)

Main Buyer
THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES
Contact Name
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Contact Email
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Contact Phone
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →

Buyer Location

Locality
RICHMOND
Postcode
TW9 4DU
Post Town
Twickenham
Country
England

Major Region (ITL 1)
TLI London
Basic Region (ITL 2)
TLI7 Outer London - West and North West
Small Region (ITL 3)
TLI75 Hounslow and Richmond upon Thames
Delivery Location
TLC North East (England), TLD North West (England), TLE Yorkshire and The Humber, TLF East Midlands (England), TLG West Midlands (England), TLH East (England), TLI London, TLJ South East (England), TLK South West (England)

Local Authority
Richmond upon Thames
Electoral Ward
Kew
Westminster Constituency
Richmond Park

Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)

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The Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) is a framework designed to increase transparency and access to public procurement data in the public sector. It is widely used by governments and organisations worldwide to report on procurement processes and contracts.

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