Independent Legal Advisors Service
The grant recipient will deliver free, independent legal advice to support victims of adult rape in England and Wales understand, uphold and feel confident in their legal rights. The grant will be awarded in a single lot - applications are welcome from either a single organisation or a consortium.
- Opening date:
- Closing date:
Contents
Summary
Ministry of Justice invites applications for the Independent Legal Advisors (ILAs) Service grant.
The purpose of this grant funding will be:
· For ILAs to provide help to victims in England and Wales of rape and assault by penetration, as defined under s1 and s2 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003. Victims must be aged 18 or over to access the service and must be 16 or over at the time of offence.
· The Grant Recipient will have discretion over how to approach cases where contact is made with the service by an adult victim of another sexual offence type (for example, sexual assault), with a view to overall service capacity.
ILAs will help victims with legal issues following a police report including, but not limited to:
· Understanding their rights.
· Understanding what constitutes a reasonable Third-Party Material or digital material request.
· Understanding why their personal information may be requested during an investigation or used in court.
· Submitting complaints to criminal justice agencies.
· Submitting or challenging criminal injury compensation claim applications.
· Applications to the Victim’s Right to Review scheme for both police and CPS.
· Understanding eligibility for special measures, the application process and court decisions.
As part of this service, ILAs will not be able to:
· Represent a victim at court.
· Support a victim with Achieving Best Evidence interviews, or with answering questions in court.
· Support victims with legal issues outside of criminal proceedings. E.g., in family or civil issues.
· Assist the victim with, or undertake, civil litigation or preparation for civil litigation (beyond the assistance they can provide to help the victim understand their rights regarding initial complaints and review requests, or with lodging such requests and complaints with the relevant agencies).
· Provide support in any way that may be considered to be ‘victim coaching’.
· Provide broader emotional support to victims, pre-charge or outside of the provision of legal advice in relation to their rape case in the criminal justice process.
· Give legal instructions to the CPS or police on wider case management.
· Do anything that could, or could be seen to, compromise the service’s impartiality.
Eligibility
Application are invited from public, non-profit or private sector organisations or a consortium of such organisations providing they are UK-based. Applicants must register for or hold a Supplier account on Ministry of Justice's e-sourcing platform and will need to provide relevant information to satisfy due diligence/eligibility checks.
MoJ will award the grant in a single lot therefore organisations or consortiums must be able to deliver a service across England and Wales. MoJ will not co-ordinate or facilitate consortiums/partnerships from among applicants wishing to deliver a partial service and applications must be made by the Lead Partner with the agreement of other partners within their consortium.
Government Grant funding cannot be used to generate profit however the grant can be used to support full cost recovery of the ILA service including a reasonable contribution to corporate overheads - any recharge rate used in your costings must be specified.
Objectives
The service aims to help victims to better understand their legal rights, feel confident in their ability to advocate for these rights, and feel supported and informed throughout the criminal justice process, and should deliver procedurally fair outcomes.
The key objectives of the grant are therefore as follows:
· The service will provide high quality, accurate, and confidential legal advice. This should be delivered, free of charge, and without discrimination to eligible victims across England and Wales.
· Requests should be responded to in time to allow service users to advocate for themselves and apply the advice at the correct point in their criminal justice journey, where appropriate.
· Staffing levels should reflect need and funding available and should be flexible to changes in demand as much as possible within the funding constraints.
· ILAs should build positive and effective relationships with the CPS and police.
· The service will collect high quality monitoring data on scheme usage and user demographics, as well as via victim feedback surveys, to be shared with the Authority.
The current victim landscape can be overwhelming for victims. ILAs will work with other victim services such as Independent Sexual Violence Advisers (ISVAs) to make sure they are joined up to give the best experience to victims.
Service Outcomes
The overall purpose of the service is to help victims to better understand their legal rights, feel confident in their ability to advocate for these rights and, feel supported and informed throughout the criminal justice process, and should deliver procedurally fair outcomes.
Victims will:
· Have access to timely, accurate and informative legal support.
· Understand their rights throughout the investigation and at court and feel supported to advocate for these rights.
· Understand the purpose and scope of requests for their personal information.
· Feel better able to engage with the criminal investigation or court process after speaking to an independent legal advisor.
· Feel more supported and confident to advocate for their rights after engaging with the independent legal advisor.
· Feel the support they received was sensitive, understanding, and trauma informed.
· Feel satisfied with how promptly and professionally the service handled their inquiry.
· Have access to clear, reliable information and resources through the online platform, which helps them understand their options, criminal justice processes, and the support available to them.
The ILA service will also:
· Complement the work of the CPS and police where appropriate.
· Not detrimentally impact wider Criminal Justice System processes, such as having significant impacts on timeliness of case progression.
· Aim to support better relationships between police, CPS and victims.
· Work effectively with ISVAs, or other victim services, and not duplicate work done by other services or agencies.
Dates
Ministry of Justice will assess application following the closing date of 28 July and aim to notify applicants by 19th August as to the outcome of their application. We will seek to sign a Grant Funding Agreement with the successful applicant by the end of August. Grant Funding will commence from 1 September 2026 and the grant recipient should be able to start delivery of the ILA Service within 3 months of the commencement date.
How to apply
All applications must be submitted through MoJ's e-sourcing platform using the link below:Ministry of Justice Sourcing PortalFor reference the Independent Legal Advisors Service Grant is Prj_17828 and all grant competition documents can be found under ITT_10689