Latest blogs on procurement law

Readers will be aware that under UK law, generally, a procurement challenge can only be brought if it is made within 30 days of the date the claimant first had knowledge (or ought to have first had that knowledge) of the breach being complained of.

Here in Cambridge there are many memorials to Thomas Hobson the city innkeeper who used to tell customers that they could have any horse as long as it was the one closest to the stable door an option which became known as Hobson's choice.

Disappointed bidders in public procurement exercises have often resorted to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to try to obtain information which may assist them in bringing a claim.

Hard on the heels of the Danish case referred to in our last blog post comes the unfortunate tale of Mr Nadarajah, a sole legal practitioner who operated under the title All About Rights Law Practice.

It seems that there are still some procurement exercises underway which were begun before the implementation of the Remedies Directive in 2009. A procurement by Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority (MWDA) was one of those procurements.

In the recent case of Nationwide Gritting Services Ltd v The Scottish Ministers [2013], the Scottish court had to consider whether a claim was out of time or not.

All procurement practitioners know that you only have 30 days from the date of knowledge of a potential breach to bring a claim under the Public Contract Regulations (the Regulations) and now also for judicial review.

The decision shows that while the court is mindful of the need to be fair and to give the Claimant access to documents which are necessary to establish its claim it will only make early orders on disclosure where the documents sought are necessary...

Readers will be aware that The Public Contracts Regulations 2006 (the Regulations) provide a mechanism by which the running of a procurement process and the decisions taken within it can be challenged by bidders and/or others with an interest in the outcome.