GLD013 2021 GLAS Panel - Pensions Related Legal Services

Following the referendum on the UK's membership of the EU, the Authority's workload has increased substantially, and will continue to increase. This increase in demand cannot be fully met from the Authority's own resources.

The Authority therefore seeks the assistance of one or more teams of lawyers, with particular experience and expertise in the area of pensions law and public law, to work with the Authority's lawyers and their departmental clients on an instruction-by-instruction basis in order to increase legal resources available to respond to 'business as usual' potentially also EU-exit related work.

The Supplier may be asked to co-work on a matter with a GLD lawyer, or may be the principal Supplier of legal support; the degree of GLD involvement will be determined by the Authority and [the Client Department] on an instruction-by-instruction basis.

The Supplier will work together with the Authority, its Client Departments and where appropriate external stakeholders, and will be required to support the Authority through:

Providing risk-based legal advice, applying the GLD risk framework (embedded below), in concise plain English, in a form agreed with the Authority and the instructing lawyer at the outset of the supplier's involvement on each instruction. It is expected that these matters will be largely, but not exclusively, related to pensions law and related issues of public law. Such advice is to be provided in the most cost effective fashion and in a timeframe as determined by the instructing lawyer, the Client Department and/or the Authority.

The Supplier will work as part of a wider team of lawyers, policy experts and officials, within the Client Department for each individual instruction and with stakeholders, where necessary. The Supplier will consult them as appropriate and refer issues requiring specialist public law expertise to their instructing lawyer. Where required, team working will include effectively working as in-house counsel on a long-term project, requiring the ability to work with individuals of varying seniority and with varying degrees of subject-matter expertise.

The Supplier will adopt a demand-led and responsive approach: assessing their ability to meet the deadlines specified in instructions on a project-by-project basis, identifying where there are gaps in instructions, working to the level of input sought in respect of a particular project or aspect of a project, whilst ensuring that the advice is provided in the most cost-effective manner.

The Supplier will be expected to assess whether any potential, actual or perceived conflicts of interest exist on an instruction-by-instruction basis. Where conflicts are identified, the Supplier will be expected to notify the Authority and identify how that conflict may be mitigated.

The supplier will be expected to provide support for a number of Central Government Departments and schemes.