The Legal Services Commission (LSC) has published the timetable for the new civil bid rounds and details of its amended contracting proposals, after consultation with providers.

Following concerns about the criteria for consortium arrangements, under which firms can join together to provide the package of debt, housing and social welfare law required, the LSC has simplified its requirements. Firms will not have to merge, but simply have links with other firms to provide the full range of advice.

The minimum number of new matter starts that firms can request has been reduced, and will vary in different geographic areas to account for local issues.

Family contracts for services relating to children will be contracted separately, in recognition of the specialist knowledge required. Otherwise the combinations of services to be tendered for are largely unchanged from the original proposals.

The selection criteria for awarding contracts in procurement areas where there are too many providers bidding have yet to be fully decided. One criterion could be based on the supervisor-to-caseworker ratios.

Richard Miller, Law Society legal aid manager, said that, while there had been some ‘sensible adjustments’ to the proposals, serious concerns remained, for example over the criteria to be used to select ­suppliers.

The bid rounds will be run through an e-tendering system which has been trialled by immigration practitioners in Yorkshire and Humberside. Applications will only be accepted via the LSC’s online portal.

The tendering process will begin in September 2009 with the new three-year contracts starting in April 2010.