Article by Jonathan Lewis – Procurement – lifting the automatic suspension under the utility regulations

Lexis Nexis Public Law analysis written by Jonathan Lewis.

Lagan Construction (Lagan) issued a claim against Northern Ireland Water (NIW) when NIW did not award it a contract under Framework Agreement IF105. The procurement was governed by Utility Contract Regulations 2016 (UCR 2016). NIW applied under UCR 2016, reg 111(1)(a) to lift the automatic suspension imposed by operation of UCR 2016, reg 110. Mr Justice Horner lifted the stay on the basis that damages would be an adequate remedy for Lagan, but an inadequate remedy for NIW. It was not strictly necessary to consider the balance of convenience but Horner J found that it would in any event have overwhelmingly favoured lifting the suspension.

This article was first published by Lexis®PSL on 07 December 2020

This alerter is available to download as a PDF below.

To subscribe to Henderson Chambers news, alerters and updates please click here.