The vast majority of corporate counsel have backed suggestions that the public sector should play a greater role in working to reduce the costs of companies bidding for Government contracts.

In the latest Legal Week Benchmarker survey of leading in-house lawyers, conducted in association with Bevan Brittan, 92% of the respondents said the public sector should work harder to lower costs for private companies involved in the bidding process.

In-house counsel said public bodies should look to lower bidders' costs by slashing red tape to accelerate the decisionmaking process.

The findings reflect mounting concern that companies face spiralling costs as bids become mired in bureaucratic and regulatory requirements.

The survey also found that in-house advisers are increasingly concerned that the lengthy, labour-intensive bidding process is weighted to favour larger, more established bidders.

Eighty-six percent of the respondents agreed that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) were put at a disadvantage by public sector procurement procedures, including more than one in five (21%) who said they 'strongly agreed'.

Corporate counsel suggested that public bodies were under pressure to hire established companies seen as more 'secure' than smaller rivals.

One senior in-house adviser added: "The bid process is very time-consuming and there is a lot of work to be put in up front before you see any results. Small companies cannot afford to do that without knowing [they] will get paid for it."

However, concerns over cost seem unlikely to deter most companies from bidding for further public sector work, with 94% of the respondents predicting their company will bid again in the future.

The findings come with in-house advisers agreeing that UK companies are set to benefit from a wave of new public sector outsourcing opportunities over coming years.

Seventy-nine percent of the respondents to the survey said they expected to see a rise in the amount of public sector work being outsourced to private companies over the next five years.

Forty-six percent said they expected public sector opportunities to increase 'a little' while a further third said they expected public sector work to increase 'a lot'.

Just 5% of respondents said they thought outsourcing opportunities would decrease over the same period, while 11% predicted work levels to remain as they are.

Corporate counsel operating in the healthcare and financial services sectors were the most optimistic of a pronounced upturn, with 67% and 50% respectively predicting a major increase.

However, just 25% of in-house advisers at transport companies were confident of increased levels of business from the public sector.

The findings reflect the continued value of public sector outsourcing work to UK companies in the face of fierce competition. Seventy-two percent of participating counsel rated competition on tenders for public sector work as either 'strong' or 'very strong'.

By contrast, just 6% of the respondents described the competition from rival companies as either 'weak' or 'very weak'.

While companies recognised the importance of obtaining a competitive advantage over their rivals, with many corporate counsel saying they would bring in specialists with prior bid experience to assist on future bids, few rely on external lawyers for their legal advice.

Forty-three percent of the respondents to the survey said that 'very little' of the legal advice they received on bids for public sector work was provided by external advisers.

Just 12% said that 'most' or 'all' of their legal advice was provided by external lawyers instructed by the company.

The findings come despite almost a fifth (17%) of the respondents admitting that legal input was the most demanding aspect of a bid on company resources rather than technical input – cited by 55% of the respondents as the most resource-intensive element of any bid.

A third (33%) of in-house counsel cited draft contract conditions as the area most likely to require independent advice.

The survey also found that companies bidding for public sector contracts are increasingly being judged on criteria other than best value.

Four out of five (80%) in-house advisers said their companies were being forced to meet a range of ethical and procedural considerations when tendering for public sector work.

Corporate counsel cited issues including diversity and employees' rights as potentially decisive factors in the bidding process, with other considerations typically including standards on data protection and health and safety.

The respondents to the survey also made clear the increasing prevalence of socalled 'green procurement' in the public sector, where environmental requirements addressing issues such as recycling, waste management and pollution control are taken into consideration.

Just 20% said their companies had not been expected to meet any such ethical requirements on previous bids.

However, many in-house lawyers said they were sceptical over the validity of some elements of the requirements, dismissing the measures as "bureaucratic hoop-jumping".

One in-house adviser said his company had been inundated with a variety of ethical requirements that were "too numerous to list" when bidding for public sector work.

One issue where consensus was found related to a lack of feedback for failed bidders, with the respondents expressing frustration at the seemingly arbitrary nature of public sector decision-making.

Bethan Evans, head of government law at Bevan Brittan comments: "Companies can put in a lot of work and it can be quite difficult to get any reasons for why the bid was not successful. It is extremely helpful to have feedback."

The respondents were also broadly critical of the management of bids, with 13% describing the process in their experience as 'very badly managed'.

Ultimately, it seems the bid process is as much a work in progress as many of the projects it seeks to support – and bidders and public sector buyers alike have plenty yet to learn.