Slaughters shares in £800k fee for ferry probe debacle
Contract win follows last week's £800,000 Eurotunnel award
February 12, 2019 at 10:53 AM
2 minute read
Slaughter and May has been involved in its third lucrative government contract in four months, as Britain prepares to leave the EU.
The latest involvement is disclosed in a report by the National Audit Office, which shows the magic circle firm shared £800,000 from the Department of Transport with auditing giant Deloitte and specialist consulting firm Mott Macdonald.
The report was published to support an inquiry by the Committee of Public Accounts.
Slaughters' work relates to external advice on three contracts for additional freight capacity on ferry services between the UK and mainland Europe, designed as a fail-safe against Brexit.
The Department had contracted with ferry operators Brittany Ferries, DFDS and Seaborne Freight to supply the additional capacity. While Brittany Ferries and DFDS are considered able to provide additional ferry capacity, Seaborne – which became the focus of the inquiry – was identified by Mott Macdonald as suffering from "significant execution risks".
Slaughters was tasked by the department to provide an assessment of how commercial and legal risks are dealt with through the negotiated contracts.
The firm also undertook a background check on Seaborne and its management, which included searching the company's filing history, ensuring that no winding-up orders had been made against it and that its directors were not disqualified.
Slaughters last week won a major contract tender valued at £800,000 to provide legal services to the Department of Transport over potential legal action arising from Brexit, and was in October awarded a £131,000 contract for legal advice on an investment in electric vehicle charging.
In January, Slaughters lost its place on the Financial Services Compensation Scheme's legal panel, losing out to Clifford Chance.
Slaughters declined to comment.
Photo credit: Julie Gentry
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