Thread by @GoodLawProject

BREAKING: High Court finds Government PPE ‘VIP’ lane for politically connected suppliers ‘unlawful’ 🚨
glplive.org/vip-lane-12012…

🧵Over a year of hard work has paid off today.

The High Court found: “the Claimants have established that operation of the High Priority Lane was in breach of the obligation of equal treatment… the illegality is marked by this judgment.” 1⃣

The Judge agreed the VIP lane conferred preferential treatment on bids: it sped up the process, which meant offers were considered sooner in a process where timing was critical, and VIPs’ hands were held through the process. 2⃣

She said: "Offers that were introduced through the Senior Referrers received earlier consideration at the outset of the process. The High Priority Lane Team was better resourced and able to respond to such offers on the same day that they arrived." 3⃣

The Court found the Government allocated offers to the VIP lane on a “flawed basis” and did not properly prioritise bids:

"There is evidence that opportunities were treated as high priority even where there were no objectively justifiable grounds for expediting the offer." 4⃣

The Court noted that the overwhelming majority by value of the product supplied by Pestfix and Ayanda could not be used in the NHS. 5⃣

An independent investigation by the BBC has also revealed issues with the product supplied by Clandeboye, which were not disclosed to the High Court.

We believe the Government misled the Court and is in correspondence with lawyers for the Secretary of State. 6⃣

The Judge found that, even though Pestfix and Ayanda received unlawful preferential treatment via the VIP lane, they would likely have been awarded contracts anyway. 7⃣

The Judge also refused to allow publication of how much money was wasted by the Government’s failure to carry out technical assurance on the PPE supplied by Pestfix and Ayanda.

We're considering the wider implications of these aspects of the ruling and next steps. 8⃣

Thank you for your trust in us, and your continued support of this case over 18 long months. Without you, our supporters, this simply wouldn’t have been possible. 9⃣

🌟 We’d like to say a huge thank you to the lawyers who worked tirelessly for us and @EveryDoctorUK on this case:

Jason Coppel QC, Patrick Halliday & Zac Sammour at 11KBW & @alexrook1 & the team @ris_law.

We hugely appreciate their efforts 🔟 (end of 🧵)