--- title: "Online Legal Research Subscription / Online Legal Library for Local Authority Legal Services" ocid: "ocds-h6vhtk-06d55f" canonical_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-06d55f" markdown_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-06d55f.md" json_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-06d55f.json" source: "Find A Tender Service" current_stage: "Planning" buyer: "CARMARTHENSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL" published: "2026-07-28" --- # Online Legal Research Subscription / Online Legal Library for Local Authority Legal Services Buyer: CARMARTHENSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL Current stage: Planning OCID: ocds-h6vhtk-06d55f [View canonical contract page](https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-06d55f) [Download OCDS JSON](https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-06d55f.json) ## Summary Carmarthenshire County Council, located in Carmarthen, is in the planning stage of procuring an online legal research subscription and library platform to enhance its Legal Services team's capabilities. The project focuses on comprehensive access to legislative texts, case law, AI-assisted legal research, and Wales-specific legal resources. The council has initiated a market engagement process to gather supplier insights regarding service capabilities, pricing models, and technical requirements. The key date for interested parties to engage is by 30th September 2026, with online sessions scheduled for early September 2026. This tender offers growth opportunities for businesses in the subscription services and library software sectors, particularly those specialising in legal documentation and certification services. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with solutions for integrated online research platforms, including AI-based legal searches and robust security features, would find this tender especially relevant. Providers with capabilities to support local authority requirements, such as content differentiation between English and Welsh law and remote access features, are well-suited to benefit from this procurement process. ## Notice Carmarthenshire County Council wishes to undertake preliminary market engagement in relation to the provision of an online legal research and legal library subscription service for its in-house Legal Services team. The Council invites interested organisations to register their interest and request further information in relation to the provision of this service. This invitation is issued for information-gathering and early market engagement purposes only and does not constitute a commitment to proceed with any future procurement process. The Council is exploring the market for a secure, cloud-based online legal research platform capable of providing comprehensive access to UK legislation, retained EU law, case law, legal commentary, practical guidance, precedents, legal encyclopaedias, reference works, training and support. The requirement is primarily to support in-house local authority lawyers delivering legal advice and services across a wide range of Council functions. The Council requires market insight on whether suitable providers can offer a comprehensive legal research service covering primary and secondary legislation from the UK Parliament, Scottish Parliament, Northern Ireland Assembly and Welsh Senedd; retained EU law applicable in the UK; reported and relevant unreported UK cases and tribunal decisions; practical guidance; authoritative commentary; legal reference books; legal encyclopaedias; and editable/downloadable precedents. A critical requirement is the ability to reflect the latest legal position in Wales in devolved areas of law, rather than providing English-centric content with only limited Welsh coverage. The Council is particularly interested in understanding the availability of one-stop-shop or integrated legal research platforms, including solutions that incorporate reliable AI-assisted legal search, natural language searching, document analysis, alerts, saved searches, usage analytics, remote access, single sign-on, multi-factor authentication, onboarding, training and ongoing account management. ### Planning Information The Council seeks market feedback on supplier capability, available platforms, Wales-specific content coverage, AI-assisted legal research functionality, access and security arrangements, licensing models, service levels, training and implementation support, pricing structures, framework or consortium availability, and any alternative approaches that could meet the Council’s requirement. • Whether suppliers can provide comprehensive coverage of UK legislation, retained EU law, case law, tribunal decisions, legal commentary, practical guidance, precedents, legal encyclopaedias and specialist reference works. • How suppliers distinguish between English and Welsh law in devolved areas, including education, housing, social care, local government, environmental law, animal health and regulatory enforcement. • Whether suppliers can provide substantive Wales-specific commentary, guidance and precedents, rather than limited recognition that the law differs in Wales. • The extent of coverage across local government, planning and building control, highways and public rights of way, contracts and procurement, subsidy control, property, civil and criminal litigation, employment, data protection, freedom of information, safeguarding, education, housing, insolvency, company law, construction and public law. • The availability, reliability and limitations of AI-assisted search, natural language search, document analysis, saved searches, alerts and research workflow tools. • Available licence models, including named users, concurrent users, module-based access and recommendations for local authority legal teams. • Technical requirements including cloud access, remote access, single sign-on, multi-factor authentication, usage analytics, reporting, data protection, security and support arrangements. • Indicative pricing, contract length, renewal arrangements, implementation timescales, training, account management and service level commitments. • Availability through public sector purchasing arrangements. • Any aspects of the Council’s emerging requirement that may restrict competition, be disproportionate, or could be delivered through a different structure. Response format: Online sessions will commence early September 2026. Interested parties should contact Hayley Davies via email at haldavies@carmarthenshire.gov.uk to register interest and schedule a Teams call in September. Confidentiality: Responses will be treated as commercially confidential where appropriate. Suppliers should clearly identify any information they consider commercially sensitive. Aggregated and anonymised feedback may be used to inform the Council’s procurement strategy, specification, route to market and any future tender documentation. No commitment: This notice does not constitute an invitation to tender. The Council is not obliged to proceed with procurement or award a contract. ## Key Details | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Publication source | Find A Tender Service | | Latest notice | https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/071269-2026 | | Notice type | UK2 - Preliminary Market Engagement Notice | | Procurement type | Standard | | Procurement category | Services | | Procurement method | Not Specified | | Procurement method details | Not specified | | Tender suitability | SME | | Awardee scale | Not specified | | All stages | Planning | ## Dates | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Publication date | 28 Jul 2026 | | Submission deadline | Not specified | | Future notice date | 16 Nov 2026 | | Award date | Not specified | | Contract period | 18 Jan 2027 - 17 Jan 2030 | | Recurrence | Not specified | ## Values | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Tender value | £155,000 | | Lots value | Not specified | | Awards value | Not specified | | Contracts value | Not specified | ## Status | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Tender status | Planning | | Lots status | Planning | | Awards status | Not specified | | Contracts status | Not specified | ## Buyer | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Main buyer | CARMARTHENSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL | | Locality | CARMARTHEN | | Post town | Swansea | | Postcode | SA31 1JP | | Country | Wales | | ITL 1 | TLL Wales | | ITL 2 | TLL4 Mid and South West Wales | | ITL 3 | TLL42 South West Wales | | Local authority | Carmarthenshire | | Electoral ward | Carmarthen Town North and South | | Westminster constituency | Caerfyrddin | | Delivery location | TLL14 South West Wales | ## CPV Codes ### Divisions - 48 - Software package and information systems - 79 - Business services: law, marketing, consulting, recruitment, printing and security ### Codes - 48160000 - Library software package - 48300000 - Document creation, drawing, imaging, scheduling and productivity software package - 79130000 - Legal documentation and certification services - 79980000 - Subscription services ## Release History - 28 Jul 2026 at 13:25 - Planning - UK2 - Preliminary Market Engagement Notice - https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/071269-2026 ## Documents - https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/071269-2026 28th July 2026 - Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender ## Notice URLs - https://www.carmarthenshire.gov.wales - https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/54/contents ## 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-h6vhtk-06d55f. The underlying structured data is available as OCDS JSON at https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-06d55f.json.