Suspension on Award of Fire Brigade Safety Equipment Contract Maintained

If you feel that you have been treated unfairly in a public contract tendering exercise, you are anything but powerless and should take legal advice straight away. A High Court case on point concerned the award of a contract for the supply of protective breathing equipment to a municipal fire…

Aug 11, 2021

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Recent years have brought significant improvements in safety apparatus used by firefighters and, against the background of the Grenfell Tower disaster, the brigade was anxious to update its officers’ equipment. A company that had provided respiratory apparatus to the brigade for 10 years was one of those who tendered for a fresh 10-year contract. The contract was, however, awarded to a trade rival after it scored higher than the company, both in terms of quality and price.

The company launched proceedings against the brigade under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, arguing that the tendering process was seriously flawed. It asserted, amongst other things, that the rival’s tender was abnormally low and that there were manifest errors in scoring bids. The allegations were disputed by the brigade but, by operation of Regulation 95(1) of the Regulations, award of the contract was automatically suspended pending resolution of the dispute.

In rejecting the brigade’s application to lift the suspension, the Court found that the company had raised serious issues to be tried. If the suspension were lifted in error, the company would not be adequately compensated by an award of damages. The same could, however, also be said of the brigade if the suspension were maintained in error, thus delaying the award of an important contract.

The Court acknowledged that the public interest in the timely introduction of new protective equipment was a very strong factor in favour of lifting the suspension. However, the Court was in a position to accommodate an expedited trial of the dispute within a matter of weeks. Such a brief delay would not have any major impact on the progress of the equipment improvements. The balance thus came down in favour of maintaining the suspension until the outcome of the trial.

Racial Harassment – Black Nurse Advised to ‘Bleach Her Skin White’

Insensitive race-related comments in the workplace may not be intended to cause distress, but they can nevertheless amount to racial harassment. An Employment Tribunal (ET) made that point in the case of a black nurse who was told that she needed to bleach her skin white so that patients would be nice to her. The agency nurse worked in the challenging environment of an immigration removal centre. After she was racially abused by a detainee, a colleague told her: ‘You need to get a pool of…

Houses in Multiple Occupation – A Cautionary Tale for Errant Landlords

Pressure on the housing market has led to the conversion of many redundant office buildings into flats and the number of such projects is likely to be greatly increased by shifting work patterns brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. A Court of Appeal ruling, however, powerfully signalled that rules in respect of health, safety and living standards at such premises will be rigorously enforced. The case concerned an office block that had been converted into 47 flats. After a housing officer…

Whistleblowing and the Importance of Causation – Guideline EAT Ruling

To succeed in a whistleblowing claim it is necessary to show not only that there has been a protected disclosure and a detrimental act but also that there is a causal link between the two. As an Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) ruling made plain, that last element is in many cases the hardest to establish. In upholding a teacher’s whistleblowing claim, an Employment Tribunal (ET) found that she had made protected disclosures about practices within the nursery school where she worked. It also…