The government's top 10 legal services suppliers secured public sector awards and frameworks worth £600m in 2017, according to a new ranking. Data provider Tussell points out that further work will soon be up for grabs, with 211 legal services awards and frameworks worth £482m across the wider public sector due to expire over the next two years.

DAC Beachcroft comes top of Tussell's index, winning an estimated £138m in awards and frameworks. Weightmans comes second, with £83m, followed by Browne Jacobson (£48m), Cornerstone Barristers (60m), Bevan Brittan (£57m), Hill Dickinson (£48m), Kennedys Law (£47m), Mills & Reeve (£44m), Hempsons (£41m) and Bond Dickinson (£38m).

Tussell says the firms' success can be partly attributed to a £480m framework issued by NHS Resolution (formerly the NHS Litigation Authority) in May last year. Eight firms are listed on the framework to provide advice and services to NHS organisations over the next four years.

Firms could face greater competition from smaller businesses after Whitehall lawyers spent a year condensing 50,000 words of existing Crown Commercial Service contract terms into a new 'slimline' public sector contract. The core terms of the new contract add up to just over 20 pages and will be the same for each CCS procurement.

Gus Tugendhat, Tussell founder, said the value of wider public sector procurement was £144bn last year, equating to roughly 7% of UK gross domestic product. 'It is great to see how well the legal services sector is benefitting from the commercial opportunity to work with government,' he added.