Standard Civil Contract 2018

This superseded the Standard Civil Contract 2014 from 1/9/18, and from 1/9/24 will be superseded by the Standard Civil Contract 2024.

Contract extension

Contract documentation

  • Civil contract standard terms. Legal Aid Agency, '2018 Standard Civil Contract: Standard Terms' (1/1/21) — Clauses: (1) Interpretation; (2) Relationship and communication; (3) Working with third parties; (4) Financial disclosure and risk; (5) Equality and diversity; (6) Logos and marketing; (7) Your obligations, looking after Clients, compliance and self-monitoring; (8) Keeping records and completing and returning forms; (9) Provision of information and access to your premises; (10) Standard of Contract Work; (11) KPIs; (12) Contract Documents and precedence; (13) Amendments to the Contract Documents; (14) Your account with us, Claims, payments and Assessments; (15) Confidentiality; (16) Data protection; (17) FOIA; (18) Warranties; (19) Indemnity; (20) Giving notices; (21) Things you must tell us about; (22) Novations and Qualifying Events; (23) Bribery, collusion, false tenders, fraud and unethical behaviour; (24) Sanctions; (25) How this Contract can be ended; (26) Consequences of termination; (27) Reconsidering decisions and the review procedure; (28) Dispute resolution; (29) Governing law and jurisdiction; (30) General
  • Civil contract general provisions. Legal Aid Agency, '2018 Standard Civil Contract Specification: General provisions (sections 1-6)' (19/1/21) — Sections: (1) General; (2) Service Standards; (3) Carrying out Controlled Work; (4) Payment for Controlled Work; (5) Carrying out Licensed Work; (6) Payment for Licensed Work.
  • Civil contract mental health section. Legal Aid Agency, '2018 Standard Civil Contract: Category Specific Rules: Mental Health (section 9)' (20/3/23) — The change from the version is the addition of paragraphs 9.105 to 9.109. These set out the requirements for claiming a fee for work done following a rule 11(7)(a) appointment for a client who does not provide instructions. The new text is reproduced here.
  • Civil contract category definitions. Legal Aid Agency, '2018 Standard Civil Contract: Category Definitions' (1/1/21) — The mental health category part states: "42. Legal Help and all proceedings in relation to: (a) cases under the Mental Health Act 1983, the Mental Capacity Act 2005, and paragraph 5(2) of the Schedule to the Repatriation of Prisoners Act 1984 (as described in paragraph 5 of Part 1 of Schedule 1 to the Act); (b) the inherent jurisdiction of the High Court in relation to vulnerable adults (as described in paragraph 9 of Part 1 of Schedule 1 to the Act); (c) the inherent jurisdiction of the High Court in relation to children (as described in paragraph 9 of Part 1 of Schedule 1 to the Act) where the case relates to a decision on medical treatment [...] 43. For the avoidance of doubt, except as permitted by paragraph 13 above the Mental Health Category does not include any civil legal services made available under paragraphs 21 or 22 of Part 1 of Schedule 1 to the Act, including, but not limited to, matters arising from an individual’s detention under the Mental Health Act 1983 or the Mental Capacity Act 2005. Nor does it included services under the Mental Health Act 1983 that are required to be made available under sections 13, 15 and 16 of the Act (criminal legal aid). 44. To the extent that any relevant grant of exceptional funding is made (in accordance with section 10 of the Act), this category also includes advocacy for matters arising under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (as described in paragraph 5 of Part 1 of Schedule 1 to the Act) that are not listed in paragraph 4 of Part 3 of Schedule 1 to the Act."
  • Mental health supervisor form. Legal Aid Agency, 'Supervisor self-declaration form: mental health (route 1)' (August 2017) — "This form is for use by Supervisors who predominately supervise work in relation to the Mental Health Act 1983." Form SUPP(MH-1).
  • Mental health/capacity supervisor form. Legal Aid Agency, 'Supervisor self-declaration form: mental health (route 2)' (August 2017) — "This form is for use by Supervisors who supervise a mixture of work under the Mental Health Act 1983 and Mental Capacity Act 2005". Form SUPP(MH-2).
  • Supervisor form guidance. Legal Aid Agency, 'Guidance on completing supervisor declaration forms' (September 2020) — Extract: "26. Mental Health: Where an individual is seeking to deliver work relating to both the Mental Health Act 1983 and the Mental Capacity Act 2005, the individual must demonstrate that they are able to meet all of the requirements set out in the “Mental Health- MH 2- Supervisor Self- Declaration form”."
  • Contract management guidance. Legal Aid Agency, 'Contract management: mental health guidance' (v4, 20/3/23) — The reason given for this version is: "Amended to include Rule 11(7)(a) & 13(5)(a)(i) appointments & information on remote communication with clients". These sections are new: (4) Remote Hearings; (5) Remote Communication with Clients; (6) Rule 11(7)(a) and 13(5)(a)(i) Appointments. The full text of those sections is reproduced here. The remainder is unchanged.

External links

  • Legal Aid Agency, 'Headline intentions for civil legal aid contracts from April 2018 (20/1/17) . The LAA anticipate the procurement process for 2018 contracts is likely to start in April 2017, with services commencing on 1/4/18. Details of the process can be found in the document. It states the following in relation to mental health law: "We intend to change the case requirements under the current mental health supervisor standard to increase the number of tribunal cases to be evidenced from 5 to 10. We also intend to introduce a secondary route for supervisors that supervise a mixture of tribunal work and mental capacity work. Supervisors following this route will need to evidence 5 tribunal cases and 5 mental capacity cases. All supervisors following either route will additionally need to evidence 2 non-tribunal mental health cases. We also intend to limit the number of hearings where representation can be conducted either by counsel or an agent who do not carry out contract work for the provider for at least 14 hours per week. The Law Society is currently developing and implementing specialist panel accreditation for Mental Capacity (Welfare) Cases. Once introduced we wish to use this panel accreditation as the basis to restrict authorisation for Court of Protection work to offices with at least one accredited individual who is actively involved in delivering this work. We intend to implement this at the earliest practical opportunity and further information will be published once details of the accreditation scheme and implementation timescale are clearer."

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