Primary source(s): Legal Aid Agency procurement update, 6 November 2026; LAA announcement launching the inquests tender, 4 August 2026.
Background: The first procurement round for the new inquests category received 55 bids. Of these, 53 passed assessment and four applicants had completed verification and received contracts by 6 November. Later applications are being assessed in monthly batches. The tender was launched in preparation for the Public Office (Accountability) Bill; the LAA’s launch announcement made service commencement dependent on the parliamentary timetable and an agreed commencement date.
“Passed assessment” is the sort of phrase that looks reassuring in a government update. It tells a bereaved family rather less than the name and telephone number of a lawyer who can help.
The Legal Aid Agency’s new inquests category has attracted substantial interest. Fifty-five bids arrived before the first deadline on 4 September. Fifty-three progressed to verification. By 6 November, four applicants had cleared that further stage and been awarded contracts.
Those are three different milestones. A bid is an application. Passing assessment allows it to move forward. Verification comes before a contract award. None of them should be quietly substituted for evidence that families are already receiving the new service.
The agency began procurement on 4 August under the 2024 Standard Civil Contract. Its announcement linked the expansion to the Public Office (Accountability) Bill and explained why recruitment was taking place before Royal Assent: providers would need to be ready when the legislation commenced.
That is sensible preparation. It is also a reason to keep the milestones separate. The update establishes four contract awards; it does not, by itself, establish that the new service has launched.
The November update says applications submitted after the first deadline are being assessed too. Procurement now uses an “Always On” approach, with monthly batches rather than one opportunity followed by a closed door. That gives prospective providers another route in while the initial applicants finish their checks.
Training is part of the work. The agency has begun approving inquests courses that can provide a route to the required legal competence standard. Recruiting organisations without developing the people who will do the cases would leave a fairly handsome structure with nobody adequately equipped inside it.
For a family, representation is not an abstract expansion of provision. It is help understanding the proceedings, preparing questions and dealing with material that may be both complicated and distressing. The promise becomes useful when a suitable lawyer is actually available.
The figures do not yet answer that question. They do not show where the applicants are based, the capacity behind each contract or how quickly families will obtain assistance. It would be unfair to treat the verification gap as proof of failure. It would be equally premature to call the application numbers proof of access.
The next update should explain more than how many organisations have moved between administrative stages. Coverage, readiness and the launch timetable would help readers understand what the expansion will mean outside the procurement office.
There is encouraging interest here, and a route for more providers to join. The achievement worth measuring comes later: a family able to find the help the new category was created to provide.
Author: Thomas Greatbanks
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