Article by Jonathan Lewis – Standing in public procurement judicial review claims take a tumble (R (Good Law Project Ltd) v Secretary of State for Health and Social Care)

Lexis Nexis Public Law analysis written by Jonathan Lewis.

This was one a series of cases in which the Good Law Project (‘GLP’) sought to challenge the award of contracts awarded by the Department of Health and Social Care (‘DHSC’) in the midst of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. In this case, it judicially reviewed DHSC’s award of three contracts to Abingdon Health plc (‘Abingdon’), a diagnostics company, in respect of the development of antibody lateral flow tests (‘LFTs’). GLP argued that the decisions to enter into the contracts were irrational (in a wide array of ways); that there was a real possibility of bias and/or predetermination arising in relation to DHSC’s conduct by reason of a number of factors; that DHSC had failed to manage a conflict of interest and that its actions were vitiated by unlawful nationality discrimination/preference. It further maintained that DHSC had breached the principles of equal treatment, transparency, and proportionality and granted unlawful state aid. Mr Justice Waksman dismissed every aspect of GLP’s grounds. Further, he found that GLP did not have standing to bring this challenge.

This article was first published by LexisPSL on 24 October 2022

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