Taking the pain out of procurement

The Court refuses Circle's request to suspend the award of a medical services contract in Nottingham, pending a review of the fairness of the procurement at full trial.

No decision to abandon is ever taken lightly and, indeed, you can search for hours in the Regulations and not find an express right to abandon (albeit Regulation 55(1)(b) makes it clear that a decision not to award is permissible) but it is generally regarded as the most pragmatic response to a challenge which may have merit.

In a recent judgment of interest to readers in the health sector (Case C-456/17 Falck Rettungsdienste v Stadt Solingen) the European Court has confirmed that ambulance services which transport patients in medical emergencies are exempt from the scope of the procurement law regime.

The issues of equal treatment has been looked at by the Courts on several occasions recently. We look at a recent case from earlier in 2019 on equal treatment and the proper extent of a contracting authority’s discretion, and distil the principles for you.