REUTERS | Daniel Munoz
10/08/2016

Education law quarterly digest (May – July 2016)

This is the latest in our series of quarterly education update blogs which will enable readers to catch up on the most important cases, issues or developments in education law from May to July 2016. Please feel free to submit a comment below or send us an Ask query if you have any views on the cases, issues, or legal development that are covered or if you think we have missed something that should be brought to the attention of education law practitioners.

In this post, we look at:

  • Recent case law.
  • Legislative developments.
  • Government consultations.
  • Government guidance and policy statements.

Continue reading →

REUTERS | Toby Melville
03/08/2016

Public procurement case digest (July 2016)

July’s case digest includes an ECJ preliminary ruling on requirements for excluding bidders in relation to issues of technical capacity,  an ECJ decision ruling that it is unlawful to require a contractor to directly perform a specified percentage of works, and two Advocate General Opinions.

Please feel free to submit a comment below or send us an Ask query if you have any views on the cases covered, or think that we have missed a case that should be brought to the attention of public procurement practitioners. Continue reading →

REUTERS | David Bebber
27/07/2016

High Court considers the importance of giving reasons for a decision to register land as a village green

In R (NHS Property Services Ltd) v Surrey County Council [2016] EWHC 1715 (Admin), the High Court considered the importance of giving reasons for a decision to register land (Leach Grove Wood in Surrey) as a town or village green under section 15 of the Commons Act 2006.  The section 15 criteria for registration are that a significant number of the inhabitants of any locality, or neighbourhood within a locality, indulged as of right in lawful sports and pastimes on the land for at least 20 years. At all relevant times, the land had formed part of land held by one of the  various NHS bodies for defined statutory health-related purposes. Continue reading →

REUTERS | David Mdzinarishvili
19/07/2016

Are damages an adequate remedy for a not for profit company?

Judgment was handed down in Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust v NHS Swale Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and NHS Dartford, Gravesham and Swanley ([2016] EWHC 1393 (TCC)) (Kent CCGs) on 27 May 2016.

This case relates to a tender for adult community services in North Kent. The claimant, an NHS Foundation Trust and incumbent provider (Trust), was unsuccessful in the tender and issued proceedings alleging breach of the procurement rules. These imposed an automatic suspension on the CCGs’ right to enter into a contract with the successful bidder, Virgin Care. Continue reading →

REUTERS | Carlos Barria
07/07/2016

Decision that tender was abnormally low was flawed

This post discusses FP McCann Limited v The Department for Regional Development [2016] NICh 12.

Mr Justice Colton, sitting in the High Court in Belfast, concluded last week that the Department for Regional Development was in breach of the Public Contracts Regulations 2006 in respect of the award of a contract to design and construct the A8 dual carriageway between Belfast and Larne. In short, he found that the defendant’s decision to treat the tender submitted by the plaintiff, FP McCann Ltd (and its JV partner Balfour Beatty), as an abnormally low tender was flawed, though not necessarily manifestly unreasonable. He held that an award of damages on the basis of loss of a chance was however the appropriate remedy for the breaches of Regulation 30 and has invited the parties to make further submissions as to quantum. Continue reading →