Specialist Quality Mark Auditing Services Agreement

The Legal Aid Agency (“LAA”) is inviting Applicants to tender for a concession contract (“Contract”) to administer the LAA’s Specialist Quality Mark (“SQM”), from 1 October 2027.The SQM is the LAA’s organisational quality standard designed to ensure that Legal Services Providers are well run and provide good client care. The SQM gives assurance regarding the quality of advice in several ways which, whilst not direct measures of quality, are fundamental to reliable delivery of a quality service and therefore are fundamentally important to the delivery of legal aid services. Compliance with the SQM, or equivalent standard (e.g. Lexcel), is a requirement for Legal Services Providers that have, or are seeking to have, a contract with the LAA for the provision of legal advice funded through legal aid.

The LAA intends to enter into contract with one (1) organisation to administer the LAA’s SQM under a licence. On the LAA’s behalf, the Licensee will provide the SQM Services, which include auditing and assessing Legal Services Providers that apply for SQM accreditation.This is an opportunity to administer the SQM on the LAA’s behalf directly to the legal services market. There may also be opportunities for the Licensee to grow market share through delivering excellent value for money to Legal Services Providers, effective marketing or further

developing the reputation of the SQM. The Licensee will be paid for the Services they provide directly by the Legal Services Providers in line with the maximum prices submitted in thisconcession contract award procedure (referred to hereafter as “this procurement process”). For the avoidance of doubt, the Licensee will not be entitled to any payment from the LAA under any circumstances.