Provision of Legal Services for Drivers Medical Driving Appeals

Concepts

• legal services
• provision of legal services for drivers medical driving appeals
• drivers medical group
• swansea
• dvla
• provision of legal services
• medical driving appeals
• court dvla's medical clinical decision
• legal right
• driving entitlement

Location

Description

Drivers Medical Group (DMG) processes circa 750,000 cases a year where investigations are made into licence holders' fitness to drive. Licence holders have the legal right to challenge in court DVLA's medical clinical decision where DVLA have revoked or refused a licence. The customer can apply for a short period driving licence to be issued but may still challenge the revocation or refusal. Such challenges are considered appeal cases and currently DMG receive 450 appeal cases per annum. This is expected to rise to 500-600 over the next 3 years based on current business projections. Drivers who have had their driving entitlement revoked for medical reasons have a right to appeal against the decision under Section 100 of the Road Traffic Act 1988. This is explained in correspondence sent by the Agency to the driver at the time the driving entitlement is withdrawn. In England and Wales this must be done by way of complaint to a local Magistrates Court within six months of the revocation of or refusal to grant a driving licence. There are different rules for Scotland but these are outside the scope of this procurement. We are currently considering a service for England and Wales which will be split into geographical lots according to the location of magistrate courts. Chambers employing Barristers and Solicitor Firms employing Solicitor Advocates are engaged by the Authority to advise on and if necessary, appear before the above-mentioned Magistrates' Court to uphold a decision by the Secretary of State to revoke or refuse a driving licence on medical grounds.

CPV Codes

• 79100000 - Legal services

Indicators

• Contract is suitable for SMEs.

Other Information

The purpose of this Prior Information Notice (PIN) is to forewarn interested ***Chambers and Solicitor Firms employing Solicitor Advocates*** of this requirement and highlight that we plan to hold a 'Supplier Day' for the purpose of market sounding and to enable DVLA to describe and develop our proposed requirements. DVLA currently utilises the Government Legal Services Civil Framework and wishes to explore more suitable services for our unique requirement. Rates will be in line with the GLS framework - Civil C Panel. The Supplier Day has been scheduled for Tuesday 23rd November and will be a virtual event via Microsoft Teams. Interested service providers must express their interest via e-mail to the named contact point by 14:00 hours on 16 November, quoting reference PS/21/109 - Provision of Barrister Services for Drivers Medical Driving Appeals. At this stage we intend to run one open session for DVLA to inform potential bidders and for bidders to ask any clarification questions. Following the Supplier Day, DVLA will consider the viability of issuing a competitive tender to the market to seek proposals for this service.