2010 Standard Civil Contract
2010 Standard Civil Contract
The 2010 Standard Civil Contract came into force on 15 November 2010 for all non-family publicly funded services (including family mediation services).
This page contains information on the terms of the 2010 Standard Civil Contract.
Notice of Extension and Amendment to 2010 Standard Civil Contract
The Legal Services Commission issued a notice of extension to the contract period and of contract amendments that took effect from 1 April 2013 for the 2010 Standard Civil Contract. This notice was sent to all civil contracts holders, including those who hold the 2012 Standard Civil Contract (Family and Housing) and the 2012 Standard Civil Contract (Licence Only) contracts. Some of these providers may not hold the 2010 Standard Civil Contract.
Individual providers were sent a letter and formal notice informing them of the amendments and extension. Providers would have received this letter week commencing 18 February 2013.
For the sake of clarity, the notice of extension applies solely to those categories of law which were not affected by the termination notice issued in September 2012, namely Mental Health, Public Law, Actions Against the police etc, Clinical Negligence and Community Care.
All other categories in the 2010 Standard Civil Contract and the 2012 Standard Civil Contract (Family and Housing) and the 2012 Standard Civil Contract (Licence Only) contracts remain subject to the notice of termination issued in September 2012.
Notice of amendment and extension (PDF)
Amendments
The LSC published amendments to the 2010 Standard Civil Contract on 20 February 2013, that came into effect on 1 April 2013. Many of the amendments relate to changes under the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 ('Act'), that came into force on 1 April 2013, but there are some that relate to business/operational need. These amendments have been subject to consultation with the representative bodies.
The revised contract documentation and supporting information is below.
The Standard Terms 2010 (PDF)
The Standard Terms 2010 tracked (PDF)
Specification (Sections 1 – 6) (PDF)
Specification (Sections 1 – 6) tracked (PDF)
Other Category Specific Sections of Specification (PDF)
Other Category Specific Sections of Specification tracked (PDF)
Family Mediation Specification (PDF)
Family Mediation Specification tracked (PDF)
2010 Standard Civil Contract schedule template (PDF)
Category Definitions 2010 (PDF)
Summary of amendments to the 2010 Standard Civil Contract (PDF)
A number of Regulations are referred to in these contract documents, copies of which can be found at www.legislation.gov.uk.
Extension
The LSC announced that the contract period for the 2010 Standard Civil Contract has been extended so that the contract will now expire on 31 March 2014 (subject to our rights to extend the Contract for a further period).
Pre-April 2013 Contract documents and supporting information
All pre-April 2013 2010 contract documents and supporting information are below. There are also guides to the contract which outline the main terms of the Standard Terms 2010 and Specification.
On 30 November 2009 we made a minor revision to the Standard Terms at 14.18 to confirm that the power to recoup audit costs does not apply to audits in the ordinary Contract Compliance Audit process.
We keep providers updated about information affecting the contract via the news pages and through Legal Aid Bulletin.
Statement on devolved powers - Jun 12
Standard Terms
The Standard Terms govern the underlying relationship between the LSC and providers. These are a generic set of terms that apply to the LSC's three main face-to-face contracts:
- Civil
- Crime
- Very High Cost Cases (Crime)
These Standard Terms 2010 are based on those used in the crime and civil Unified Contracts, updated and revised as appropriate. There has also been some restructuring of the contract documents to reinforce the Standard Terms’ role as the home for all the key terms governing the relationship between the providers and the LSC.
The Guide to the Standard Terms gives an overview of the key provisions and sets out in table form the basis of each clause.
Specification
The specification sets out all the rules for carrying out and being paid for civil Controlled and Licensed Work.
It is divided into provisions of general application (sections 1 to 6) and category specific rules and payment schemes for Family, Immigration, Mental Health and all other categories (sections 7 to 10).
There is also a Payment Annex which sets out all Standard and Graduated Fees and hourly rates payable under the Specification.
Guide to 2010 Civil Specification
2010 Standard Civil Contract Specification (amended) - 3 Oct 2011
2010 Civil Specification contents page
Sections 1-6: General provisions
2012 Family Mediation Specification
Notice of extension
Letter of extension to the Unified Contract (Dec 09)
Notice of extension to the Unified Contract (Dec 09)
Template notice of contract termination
Notice of Termination of specified Categories of Law under 2010 Standard Civil Contract
Schedule
The Schedule is an important contract document that sets out provisions specific to an individual provider, including Matter Start allocations for Controlled Work. Although the contents of Schedules will vary between providers, sample Schedules are included below for illustration.
Immigration Removal Centre Schedule
Family Mediation Specification
Family mediation is covered by a separate Specification, although this still forms part of the 2010 Standard Civil Contract.
Family Mediation Specification
Family mediation contract basics
Additional documents
Category definitions 2010 and guidance on category definitions 2010
The Category Definitions 2010, which state which services fall into each category of law, are one of the key supporting documents referred to in both the 2010 Standard Crime and Civil Contracts. These replace the previous Specialist Quality Mark category definitions.
Guidance on Category Definitions 2010
Equality and diversity guidance and policy 2010
This outlines the LSC's equality and diversity guidance and policy that is referred to in the 2010 Standard Terms. You must have a copy of this when carrying out work under the 2010 Standard Civil Contract.
Equality and diversity guidance and policy 2010
The following documents are also referred to in the 2010 Standard Civil Contract:
- SMP Reconciliation Protocol
- Independent Peer Review Process
- KPI Outcome Codes
Indemnity forms
Indemnity form limited company
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) guidance and summary grid for civil providers
KPIs are now contractually enforceable. The guidance and the summary grid sets out the rationale and KPIs applicable to providers under the current 2010 Standard Civil Contract, ie. those providers with contracts in
- Social Welfare Law
- Mental Health
- Low Volume Categories
- Immigration and Asylum.
Providers should familiarise themselves with the guidance and summary grid. See the Civil Specification and Standard Terms for more detail.
2010 Civil Provider KPIs Guidance
2010 Civil Provider KPIs Summary Grid
Other information
10 October 2012 - The LSC published the 2012 Family Mediation Specification. This includes notice that the Willingess Test will no longer be paid for from April 2013 in accordance with the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012.
2 July 2011 - The interim position on Devolved Powers in Judical Review cases under the 2010 Standard Civil Contract and the 2012 Standard Civil Contract (Family and Housing) has been extended to 31 March 2013.
1 September 2011 - The LSC published amendments to the 2010 Standard Civil Contract to implement the Community Legal Service (Funding) (Amendment No2) Order 2011 that was laid on 24 August 2011 and is expected to come into force on 3 October 2011.
These amendments have been subject to consultation with the representative bodies.
The formal notice of the contract amendments and the revised contract specification are below.
Notice of amendments to 2010 Standard Civil Contract - 1 Sep 2011
27 July 2011 - The interim position on Devolved Powers in Judicial Review cases under the 2010 Standard Civil Contract has been extended further to 31 January 2012.
31 March 2011 - The interim position on Devolved Powers in Judicial Review cases under the 2010 Standard Civil Contract has been extended to 30 June 2011.
25 March 2011 - The latest versions of the Supervisor Declaration Forms for all civil categories are on the Supervisors page.
15 November 2010 - New rules have been introduced for providers who use devolved powers to grant emergency funding certificates in Judicial Review cases. These are interim arrangements that apply until midnight on 31 March, 2011.
The Unified Contract (Civil) 2007 has been extended until midnight on 30 November 2011 for only the suppliers who currently deliver ‘family only’ and ‘family and housing’ publicly funded legal services.
13 October 2010 - The 2010 Standard Civil Contract for all non-family publicly funded services(including family mediation services) will start on 15 November 2010, for those who have been successful in the recent tender process for those services.
The Unified Contract (Civil) 2007 has been extended until midnight on 14 December 2010 for only the Suppliers who currently deliver ‘family only’ and ‘family and housing’ publicly funded legal services. The quashing order issued by the High Court means that the LSC cannot proceed with awarding the 2010 Standard Civil Contracts in respect of those services to providers who were successful in the recent tender.
20 September 2010 - We have published guidance relating to the extension of the current contract which will now end on 14 November. This guidance can be found on the Unified Contract pages on the National Archives website (see link on right hand side of the page).
10 September 2010 - Contract For Signature
We've revised the contract start date of the 2010 Standard Civil Contract to 15 November 2010.
26 March 2010 - The Family Specification has been updated to take into account a consultation by the Ministry of Justice on changes to the Funding Order to give effect to the family fee schemes. The changes are minor amendments to the descriptions of services excluded from the Private Law scheme and the Family Advocacy Scheme (see paragraphs 7.69 and 7.102). The version of the contract documentation attached to this webpage are the version referred to in the amended Funding Order. The guide to the specification has also been updated to take this into account.
16 February 2010 - To take account on some minor drafting changes, we replaced the Schedule. The key changes are that we have:
- Removed the Panel Membership ratio field on Table 4
- Added a footnote to Table 1 to clarify the locations where Licensed work may be carried out
- Corrected an error in the name of a panel in Table 5
10 February 2010 - To take account of some minor drafting changes, we replaced the Standard Terms and Contract For Signature. The key changes are that we have:
Contract For Signature
- Revised the Contract Start Date to 14 October 2010;
- Removed the reference to sub-contracting as this is not applicable; and
- Amended the Consortium table in the Annex.
Standard Terms
- Clarified the rule for submitting information in the event LSC Online is unavailable (Clause 7.19)
- Confirmed that both the CFS and Schedule may be in electronic format (Clause 12.1)
- Clarified the rules on termination in relation to consortium arrangements (Clause 25.4); and
- Corrected our Fax number (Clause 28.11).
