Call-Off Agreement to Support Legal Advice in relation to Thames Tideway Tunnel

Tender description

To support the Client in its overall objective of ensuring that the Thames Tideway Tunnel is delivered at best value for Thames Water's customers by providing robust legal advice to enable Ofwat to understand and engage with the commercial and contractual elements governing the Project and to minimise the risks of a judicial review in respect of any decision by Ofwat in relation to the Thames Tideway Project. The scope of work is expert legal advisory services to the Client's legal and policy teams in relation to the TTT project. The Solicitor will be required to take the lead on various commercial and contractual issues that may arise. We therefore require lawyers with commercial, contractual and regulatory expertise in particular in relation to the delivery of a large construction project. In order to achieve the overall objectives, the Client expects that the following tasks maybe required to be undertaken: (i) advising on the exercise of Ofwat's regulatory functions under the Project Licence (including on the implementation of the revenue provisions set out in Appendix 1 to the Project Licence); (ii) advising on the exercise of various roles allocated to Ofwat under the Liaison Agreement (including approving certain variations to either Tideway's or Thames Water's scope of works); (iii) advising on proposed changes to statutory notices (including the Specification Notice); (iv) advising on the implementation of the incentives on all the parties, including Thames Water, to deliver their obligations to ensure the successful delivery of the Project as a whole; (v) reviewing papers submitted to quarterly liaison meetings involving key stakeholders; (vi) the interpretation of a suite of contractual documents governing the project and advising on any proposed changes to those documents; (vii) advising on issues coming out of regular joint risk meetings between stakeholders; (viii) reviewing papers for, and attending, the TTT Committee; (ix) assisting in responding to external communications received by Ofwat from stakeholders who oppose the TTT (including Freedom of Information requests); (x) defending any judicial reviews which may be brought against Ofwat at any point by people who oppose the TTT project; (xi) advising on issues raised by the Independent Technical Assessor (ITA); and (xii) advising on applications by Tideway for a waiver of its procurement obligations under the SIP Regulations.