Criminal Law Advice

Location

Description

Criminal law advice to Post Office Limited ('POL') in respect of criminal appeals, disclosure and matters relating to POL's former role as prosecutor, support in relation to the Metropolitan Police investigation and to provide subject matter expert advice to POL's Inquiry Team

Award Detail

CPV Codes

• None found

Legal Justification

Post Office Limited ("POL") is awarding this contract to Peters & Peters LLP ("PP") without competition because it is partially an exempted contract for exempted legal services under Paragraph 14 of Schedule 2 of the Procurement Act 2023 ("PA23") and the remaining non-exempt legal services can only be provided by PP for technical reasons and is, therefore, awarded without competition under Section 41(1) and Paragraph 6 of Schedule 5 of the PA23. The dominant purpose of the contract is the receipt of legal advice from PP either before or in contemplation of judicial proceedings. PP has been advising POL in relation to criminal law matters that are either before or in contemplation of being before the Court of Appeals Criminal Division ("CACD"). Furthermore, PP advises POL in relation to other matters referred by the Criminal Cases Review Commission ("CCRC") to the CACD. Any advice that POL obtains from PP in relation to such matters is in contemplation of judicial proceedings. All of these matters are exempt legal services as described in Paragraph 14 of Schedule 2 of the PA23 as they are legal representation by a lawyer in judicial proceedings or the giving of legal advice in contemplation thereof. In addition, PP advises POL in relation to matters directly connected to those proceedings and other matters that are related to them. PP is instructed to respond to any Section 17 requests from the CCRC in relation to the ongoing judicial proceedings. PP's role advising POL in relation to such proceedings, as well as its in-depth knowledge of POL's data universe, makes it uniquely qualified to advise POL in relation to such matters and ensure that the CCRC's requests are responded to accurately and in a timely manner. PP also advises POL in relation to matters relating to requests from the CCRC and in doing so it uses its unique position of having advised POL in relation to historic and ongoing judicial proceedings to ensure that such requests from the CCRC are responded to as expeditiously as possible. PP is currently advising POL in relation to the investigation of the Metropolitan Police Service ("MPS"). It is the only law firm in the unique position of understanding the evolving relationship that POL has with the MPS and have exclusive knowledge of the legal framework in which this relationship is based. Having advised POL for a significant period of time and handled the significant disclosure requests from MPS, only PP has the knowledge and skills to understand and effectively search POL's erratic data universe. PP is advising POL in relation to an ongoing Post Conviction Disclosure Exercise ("PCDE"). PP is the only firm with the experience and contextual knowledge required to handle such a large PCDE as they conducted the PCDE into Horizon convictions. POL is of the view that competition would be absent from a competitive procurement for these services. PP's unique experience and contextual knowledge of POL's business and data universe, and the Horizon scandal and matters arising since, as well as its existing relationship with the CCRC mean that it is the only firm that is technically competent to deliver any element of the services that are non-exempt legal services. Competition would be absent any competitive process because only PP could win such competition. POL does not consider there to be any reasonable alternative to appointing PP to provide the services. It would not be reasonably possible to appoint another firm to provide the services that are not exempted legal services. The non-exempted legal services are so closely connected to the exempted legal services as to be nearly inextricable and it would not be reasonable for POL to appoint a second firm to provide them. Accordingly, for those services that are not exempt legal services, the award of the contract to PP is a direct award under Section 41(1) and Paragraph 6 of Schedule 5 of the PA23 on the basis that competition is absent for technical reasons and there are no reasonable alternatives.

Other Information

** PREVIEW NOTICE, please check Find a Tender for full details. **