Provision of Criminal Litigation Services to MMO in South Eastern Marine Area

The MMO legal team is a dedicated team at the heart of the MMO providing legal advice and assistance to a high professional standard in support for the wide and diverse range of functions for which the MMO has responsibility. However, the MMO legal team is relatively small, and the requirements of the MMO's functions often creates a need for some additional supervised external legal resource in order to properly deal with aspects of criminal litigation arising from the MMO’s lead role in enforcement of marine related legislation, e.g. attendance at court in criminal proceedings brought by the MMO.

The longer term needs of the MMO legal team in regard to external legal resources are to be met by a series of wider procurement exercises which are expected to be finalised by April 2015. However, prior to that date there is a short term requirement to access external legal resource as and when required in relation to criminal litigation arising.

Therefore the objective of this project is to establish a call-off agreement to cover the provision of external legal support for criminal litigation arising in the Poole/Portsmouth area over the interim period ahead of the wider procurement exercises to be carried out to meet longer term requirements.