‘A raft of major changes to the regulation of procurement in the public sector in England, Wales and Northern Ireland is set to be introduced later this month.’
OUT-LAW.com, 9th February 2015
Source: www.out-law.com
‘If you’ve seen an advert in the last few years warning you to submit your tax return on time, telling you not to drink and drive, or asking you to consider joining the armed forces, chances are that the company responsible was Group M UK Limited. That company has been at the heart of an important recent case concerning the test for lifting suspensions of contracts in public procurement challenges.’
Hardwicke Chambers, 21st November 2014
Source: www.hardwicke.co.uk
Cartiera dell’Adda SpA v CEM Ambiente SpA (Case C-42/13) EU:C:2014:2345; [2014] WLR (D) 468
‘Article 45 of Parliament and Council Directive 2004/18/EC of 31 March 2004 on the co-ordination of procedures for the award of public works contracts, public supply contracts and public service contracts (as amended by Commission Regulation (EC) No 1177/2009 of 30 November 2009), read in conjunction with article 2 of the Directive, and the principle of equal treatment and the obligation of transparency did not preclude the exclusion of an economic operator from a procurement procedure on the ground that the operator had failed to comply with the requirement laid down in the contract documentation to annex to his bid, on pain of exclusion, a statement that the person designated as the operator’s technical director had not been the subject of criminal proceedings or a conviction, even where, at a date after the expiry of the deadline for submitting bids, such a statement had been provided to the contracting authority or it was shown that the person in question was identified as the technical director in error.’
WLR Daily, 6th November 2014
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
Supreme Court, 30th July 2014
‘On a challenge by an unsuccessful tenderer for a public contract, the question whether the published criteria for the award of the contract had been sufficiently clear was to be determined by the court applying an objective legal standard by reference to a reasonably well informed and diligent tenderer and did not depend on the evidence of witnesses as to how they had understood the document.’
WLR Daily, 30th July 2014
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
‘Where a contractor under a public contract was a non-profit association which, at the time of the award of the contract, had as partners not only public sector entities but also private social solidarity institutions carrying out non-profit activities, the requirement for “similar control”, established by the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union in order that the award of a public contract could be regarded as an in-house operation, was not met, so that Parliament and Council Directive 2004/18/EC of 31 March 2004 on the co-ordination of procedures for the award of public works contracts, public supply contracts and public service contracts applied.’
WLR Daily, 19th June 2014
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
‘CCGs may face pressure to disclose information about commissioning in at least four ways. From:
Their duties to involve the public in “planning of the commissioning arrangements by the group” (s14 Z2 National Health Service Act 2006).
Their duties to involve individual patients in “their care or treatment” (s14U National Health Service Act 2006).
Applications to provide information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Applications for disclosure, as part of litigation brought by failed tenderers following procurement exercises.’
Hardwicke Chambers, 10th April 2014
Source: www.hardwicke.co.uk
‘The contracts agreed between public sector bodies and their suppliers should be “more explicit” about which one of the organisations holds information for the purposes of compliance with freedom of information (FOI) rules, the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has said.’
OUT-LAW.com, 6th March 2014
Source: www.out-law.com
Nordecon AS and another v Rahandusministeerium (Case C-561/12); [2013] WLR (D) 470
‘Article 30(2) of Parliament and Council Directive 2004/18/EC did not allow a contracting authority to negotiate with tenderers tenders that did not comply with the mandatory requirements laid down in the technical specifications of the contract as published.’
WLR Daily, 5th December 2013
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
“There is general support among charities for ‘payment by results’ but its implementation has often been ‘crude’ and ‘seriously flawed’, a report for the National Council for Voluntary Organisations has argued.”
Local Government Lawyer, 30th October 2013
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
“The principle of equal treatment did not preclude a contracting authority from asking a candidate, after the deadline for applying to take part in the contracts award procedures pursuant to Parliament and Council Directive 2004/18/EC, to provide documents describing that candidate’s situation which could be objectively shown to pre-date that deadline.”
WLR Daily, 10th October 2013
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
“A High Court judge has granted an energy company an injunction preventing a waste authority from entering into a £1bn+ resource recovery contract (RRC) with a rival business.”
Local Government Lawyer, 8th October 2013
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
French Republic v Commission of the European Union (Case C-115/12P); [2013] WLR (D) 364
“The calculation of whether a member state had ‘subsided directly’ by more than 50% a works contract awarded by an entity other than themselves within the meaning of article 2(1) of Council Directive 93/37/EEC which triggered the public procurement procedures under that Directive, included sums arising from tax reductions to the members of commercial partnerships, who were natural persons, investing in a works contract.”
WLR Daily, 26th September 2013
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
“Companies that blacklist workers for taking part in trade union activity face being barred from multibillion-pound public sector contracts under plans unveiled by the Welsh government.”
The Guardian, 11th September 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“If you want to challenge a decision to do with public procurement, time is of the essence. The Court of Appeal has reiterated this warning in one of its last decisions of the term: R (Nash) v Barnet LBC [2013] EWCA Civ 1004.”
Hardwicke Chambers, 8th August 2013
Source: www.hardwicke.co.uk
“Stephen Hockman QC has written a paper published by the Policy Network, entitled ‘Legislating for Responsible Capitalism: what it means in practice’.”
In the paper, he explores the legal amendments available to improve the monitoring, transparency and accountability of corporate practice.”
Full story (PDF)
Six Pump Court, 19th June 2013
Soruce: www.6pumpcourt.co.uk
“A contract whereby (without establishing co-operation between the contracting public entities with a view to carrying out a public service task that both of them had to perform)—one public entity had assigned to another the task of cleaning certain public buildings, while reserving a supervisory power, in return for payment for the costs incurred, the second entity being authorised to use the services of third parties which might be capable of competing on the market for the accomplishment of that task—constituted a public service contract within the meaning of article 1(2)(d) of Parliament and Council Directive 2004/18/EC.”
WLR Daily, 13th June 2013
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
“A guide to the Ministry of Justice’s consultation on criminal legal aid reform (Transforming Legal Aid: Delivering a more credible and efficient system) and price competitive tendering published earlier this week.”
LegalVoice, 11th April 2013
Source: www.legalvoice.org.uk
“New rules that will allow government departments to ban companies and individuals which take part in failed tax avoidance schemes from being awarded Government contracts have been unveiled by Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander and Minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude today.”
HM Treasury, 14th February 2013
Source: www.hm-treasury.gov.uk
“The Government is seeking views on a package of measures to stem the growth in applications for judicial reviews. The measures aim to tackle the burden that this growth has placed on stretched public services whilst protecting access to justice and the rule of law. The engagement exercise seeks views on proposals in three key areas; reducing the time limits for bringing a judicial review relating to procurement or planning, bringing them into line with the appeal timetable which already applies to those cases.”
Ministry of Justice, 13th December 2012
Source: www.justice.gov.uk
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