---
title: "Legal Advice to Ofwat"
ocid: "ocds-b5fd17-99666026-0ac8-4448-9326-066ab70c6969"
canonical_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-b5fd17-99666026-0ac8-4448-9326-066ab70c6969"
markdown_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-b5fd17-99666026-0ac8-4448-9326-066ab70c6969.md"
json_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-b5fd17-99666026-0ac8-4448-9326-066ab70c6969.json"
source: "Contracts Finder"
current_stage: "Award"
buyer: "WATER SERVICES REGULATION AUTHORITY"
published: "2019-01-31"
---

# Legal Advice to Ofwat

Buyer: WATER SERVICES REGULATION AUTHORITY  
Current stage: Award  
OCID: ocds-b5fd17-99666026-0ac8-4448-9326-066ab70c6969

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## Summary

The procurement process is being conducted by the Water Services Regulation Authority (Ofwat) for the provision of legal advice, specifically titled "Legal Advice to Ofwat". This tender falls under the legal services industry category and is located primarily in the West Midlands and London, United Kingdom. Currently, the tender is in the Award stage, with awards anticipated to commence from 3rd September 2018 and running until 31st March 2021. The procurement method employed is selective, with call-off agreements to be established from a framework agreement. The deadlines for bids were set until 8th August 2018.

This tender presents a significant opportunity for law firms, particularly those with expertise in regulatory, public, and commercial law, as well as specialisations in the water and wastewater sector's economic regulation. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with a focus on providing collaborative legal services and possessing the capability to advise on complex legal areas relevant to Ofwat's functions may find themselves well-suited to compete. Overall, this represents an excellent chance for legal practitioners looking to expand their client base in the public sector.

## Notice

The objective of this work is to provide Ofwat with high quality relevant legal advice in an approachable, appropriate and timely fashion to support Ofwat in carrying out its functions and to enable the relevant Ofwat policy teams to deal with / respond to matters within the set legal or policy time frames. Scope of work The ITT is divided into two Lots. Suppliers may bid for one or both Lots. * Lot 1 is for work focussed primarily on the PR19 programme of work. We are looking to appoint two firms where we receive two sufficiently high quality bids, each under a call off agreement, to advise primarily on matters relating to the PR19 programme. It is intended that each appointed firm will advise on particular aspects of PR19, with Ofwat broadly aiming at this stage to allocate a relatively equal spread of work across the appointed firms over the course of the contract, and to take into account Ofwat's view of who is best placed at any given time that it allocates work under this Lot, taking into account appointed firms' capacity. Appointed firms may have to advise collaboratively across areas with another firm/other firms or Counsel. * Lot 2 is for legal advice to support Ofwat's other policy work areas, primarily in relation to the Finance & Governance programme, but on an ad hoc basis potentially also for work undertaken in our Strategy Hub, or our Market Outcomes and Enforcement programme. We are looking to appoint up to two firms where we receive two sufficiently high quality bids under this lot, each under a call off agreement. Firms will be selected to advise on particular parcels of work by a mini tender. The call off agreements are expected to commence in mid-late August 2018 and will run to the end of March 2021 . Each agreement will be non-exclusive and the Client reserves the right to appoint other external advisers on the work described in this invitation to tender during the period, in particular, where we consider it appropriate, external Counsel. Key disciplines required, but are not limited to: Regulatory law, in particular law relating to the economic regulation of the water and wastewater sector in England and Wales; * Public/Administrative law; * Competition law; * Regulatory instruments (operation of and drafting licences, charging rules, statutory and non-statutory codes); * Corporate law; * Contract and commercial law; * Environmental law; * Information law; * Public procurement, including outsourcing and contracting out of services. * Litigation and dispute resolution, including Judicial Reviews and Competition Market Appeals (CMA) references relevant to Ofwat's work. Additional disciplines may be required throughout the call off term: * Banking and finance law * Pensions law * Tax law * Insurance law Additional information: For further information, please contact: procurement@ofwat.gsi.gov.uk

## Key Details

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication source | Contracts Finder |
| Latest notice | https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/c2a7585f-13b0-47be-96ab-61525c94be06 |
| Notice type | Award Notice |
| Procurement type | Framework |
| Procurement category | Services |
| Procurement method | Selective |
| Procurement method details | Call-off from a framework agreement |
| Tender suitability | SME |
| Awardee scale | Large |
| All stages | Award |

## Dates

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication date | 31 Jan 2019 |
| Submission deadline | 8 Aug 2018 |
| Future notice date | Not specified |
| Award date | 16 Aug 2018 |
| Contract period | 2 Sep 2018 - 31 Mar 2021 |
| Recurrence | Not specified |

## Values

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender value | Not specified |
| Lots value | Not specified |
| Awards value | Not specified |
| Contracts value | Not specified |

## Status

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender status | Complete |
| Lots status | Not specified |
| Awards status | Active |
| Contracts status | Not specified |

## Buyer

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Main buyer | WATER SERVICES REGULATION AUTHORITY |
| Locality | BIRMINGHAM |
| Post town | Birmingham |
| Postcode | B5 4UA |
| Country | England |
| ITL 1 | TLG West Midlands (England) |
| ITL 2 | TLG3 West Midlands |
| ITL 3 | TLG31 Birmingham |
| Local authority | Birmingham |
| Electoral ward | Ladywood |
| Westminster constituency | Birmingham Ladywood |
| Delivery location | TLG West Midlands (England), TLI London |

## Supplier

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Number of suppliers | 1 |
| Supplier names | GOWLING WLG (UK |

## CPV Codes

### Divisions

- 79 - Business services: law, marketing, consulting, recruitment, printing and security

### Codes

- 79100000 - Legal services

## Release History

- 31 Jan 2019 at 18:01 - Award - Award Notice - https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/c2a7585f-13b0-47be-96ab-61525c94be06

## Documents

- https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/c2a7585f-13b0-47be-96ab-61525c94be06
  31st January 2019 - Awarded contract notice on Contracts Finder

## Provenance

This Markdown file is an alternate public rendering of the D3 Tenders contract record. The canonical page is https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-b5fd17-99666026-0ac8-4448-9326-066ab70c6969. The underlying structured data is available as OCDS JSON at https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-b5fd17-99666026-0ac8-4448-9326-066ab70c6969.json.