---
title: "PATHFINDER PROJECT - LEGAL DOCUMENT TOOLKIT"
ocid: "ocds-b5fd17-f9ab765b-c038-485b-972e-4e6f933cb652"
canonical_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-b5fd17-f9ab765b-c038-485b-972e-4e6f933cb652"
markdown_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-b5fd17-f9ab765b-c038-485b-972e-4e6f933cb652.md"
json_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-b5fd17-f9ab765b-c038-485b-972e-4e6f933cb652.json"
source: "Contracts Finder"
current_stage: "Award"
buyer: "THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES"
published: "2025-01-24"
---

# PATHFINDER PROJECT - LEGAL DOCUMENT TOOLKIT

Buyer: THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES  
Current stage: Award  
OCID: ocds-b5fd17-f9ab765b-c038-485b-972e-4e6f933cb652

[View canonical contract page](https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-b5fd17-f9ab765b-c038-485b-972e-4e6f933cb652)  
[Download OCDS JSON](https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-b5fd17-f9ab765b-c038-485b-972e-4e6f933cb652.json)

## Summary

The National Archives, based in Richmond, England, initiated an open procedure procurement for the "PATHFINDER PROJECT - LEGAL DOCUMENT TOOLKIT," classified under the industry category of business services including law, marketing, and consulting. The project aims to develop a toolkit to manage legal documents using various technologies, centred around the LegalDocML international standard. The tender process began on 21 December 2023 and ended on 23 February 2024. The contract, awarded to Venturebright Ltd on 21 March 2024, is valued at £113,333 and will run from 14 April 2024 to 28 February 2025. This project was completed with multiple tools developed, ranging from recently created to those established over the last 15-20 years.

This tender creates numerous opportunities for businesses, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) specialising in legal document management, information technology, and data analytics. The project involves understanding potential market needs and evaluating business models, which is advantageous for companies looking to expand both domestically and internationally. Additionally, with the AI revolution enhancing the legal industry, businesses that offer innovative information management solutions can leverage this toolkit to penetrate new markets or enhance their offerings. The National Archives' initiative demonstrates the government's commitment to improving information management capabilities, thus providing a strategic growth platform for tech-driven legal services providers.

## Notice

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 tools in the Toolkit have been developed using a variety of different technologies over the last 15-20 years. Some are quite recent (developed in the last 2-3 years), some are much older. The tools are centred on LegalDocML, the international standard for legal documents. This provides the core data model around which many of the more recent tools (Lawmaker and Find Case Law) are based. Our adoption of an international standard means the toolkit potentially has appeal in overseas markets. Most of the tools have been developed with a very specific task in mind but we think they potentially have wider application and use. Our hopes are highest with Lawmaker, a browser based drafting and amendment workflow management tool, and the parser we have developed for converting Court Judgments from Word, for Find Case Law. We are trying to work out how best to exploit the tools in the Toolkit commercially. We think there is both a domestic and international market for our tools - but we don't know which tools or what markets to focus on. We are regularly approached by people wanting to use some of these tools. The AI Revolution is opening up new opportunities as "Big Law" wakes up to the power of data. Many legal businesses rightly want to stay in control of their information assets but need better information management capabilities. Our Toolkit could help. In this project we will develop our understanding of the potential market, learning more about potential users and their needs, and evaluating the different business models we might use. The project has a budget of PS32,000 (inc. VAT) per lot.

## Key Details

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication source | Contracts Finder |
| Latest notice | https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/ece625da-e551-46f8-911c-db847a1c7532 |
| Notice type | Award Notice |
| Procurement type | Standard |
| Procurement category | Services |
| Procurement method | Open |
| Procurement method details | Open procedure (below threshold) |
| Tender suitability | SME |
| Awardee scale | SME |
| All stages | Tender, Award |

## Dates

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication date | 24 Jan 2025 |
| Submission deadline | 23 Feb 2024 |
| Future notice date | Not specified |
| Award date | 21 Mar 2024 |
| Contract period | 13 Apr 2024 - 28 Feb 2025 |
| Recurrence | Not specified |

## Values

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender value | Not specified |
| Lots value | Not specified |
| Awards value | £113,333 |
| 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 | THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES |
| Locality | RICHMOND |
| Post town | Twickenham |
| Postcode | TW9 4DU |
| Country | England |
| ITL 1 | TLI London |
| ITL 2 | TLI7 Outer London - West and North West |
| ITL 3 | TLI75 Hounslow and Richmond upon Thames |
| Local authority | Richmond upon Thames |
| Electoral ward | Kew |
| Westminster constituency | Richmond Park |
| Delivery location | Not specified |

## Supplier

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Number of suppliers | 1 |
| Supplier names | VENTUREBRIGHT |

## CPV Codes

### Divisions

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

### Codes

- 79000000 - Business services: law, marketing, consulting, recruitment, printing and security

## Release History

- 24 Jan 2025 at 10:18 - AwardUpdate - Award Notice - https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/ece625da-e551-46f8-911c-db847a1c7532
- 9 Apr 2024 at 12:13 - Award - Award Notice - https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/ece625da-e551-46f8-911c-db847a1c7532
- 21 Dec 2023 at 10:54 - Tender - Tender Notice - https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/637637f3-3dfc-494b-a06e-f7386280c1df

## Documents

- https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/ece625da-e551-46f8-911c-db847a1c7532
  24th January 2025 - Awarded contract notice on Contracts Finder
- https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/637637f3-3dfc-494b-a06e-f7386280c1df
  21st December 2023 - Opportunity notice on Contracts Finder
- https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/Attachment/58d27c89-ba39-4364-b04e-6fc83df6d419

## 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-f9ab765b-c038-485b-972e-4e6f933cb652. The underlying structured data is available as OCDS JSON at https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-b5fd17-f9ab765b-c038-485b-972e-4e6f933cb652.json.