Jolyon Maugham QC wins his case against Matt Hancock on procurement of PPE

This gets court time and yet we have a huge backlog of cases....

… and it all could have been avoided if either the government had acted lawfully in the first place or even owned up to its breach.

risky219 Feb 21 12:54

Or if the case hadn’t been brought eh

___________________________________________________

conservative approach to law and order eh

"just get rid of courts"

 

"In 2017, the Institute for Fiscal Studies calculated that in the decade from 2010/11, the Ministry of Justice’s (MoJ) budget would be cut by around 40%. Spending plans have been revised upwards since then, so that in 2019/20 the total MoJ budget was only around 25% lower than in 2010/11."

Oh look - it's not judicial review cases that are causing backlogs. It's the govt. 

The government were stuck on this one. There was a clear shortage of PPE and massive demand. You had crying medics and their unions in the media daily talking about shortages. Everyone agreed that they needed more PPE. https://www.channel4.com/news/we-will-lose-our-colleagues-we-will-be-burying-our-colleagues-jenny-vaughan

The government just had to act to secure PPE as quickly as possible or quicker. Regardless of cost or origin. I think they did the right thing and this is a very disappointing verdict. 

Yes, but the verdict isn’t about how the government went about its procurement. The question was about the government’s obligation to publish contracts it enters into within a specific period of time. 

you can't expect senior politicians to publish details of contracts awarded without a procurement process to companies run or owned by their friends

 think of the backlash!!!

People think they are all dodgy enough as it is

The risky approach to corruption isn't try to end corruption, it's stop drawing attention to it.

  Is there a more kleptocratic-loving, flag-waving tool on this board?  (sadly, yeah, but still).

I've always assumed bribes had to be paid to secure PPE. That isn't great but I don't know what else the government was expected to do. They can hardly say "yeah we paid bribes to get PPE ahead of other countries". 

"This gets court time and yet we have a huge backlog of cases...."

 

Totally agree. Holding the government to account about major issues of the day is such a waste of time. 

I for one am furious that my High Court debt claim against my non-paying tenant has been listed for trial in 2022! FURIOUS. Is there no justice in this country?

 

*Not me obviously but someone senior in the legal profession that I spoke to 2 weeks ago...

If that was the issue, Risky, old sun, don't think a more rational reaction upon receipt of a claim form might have been to publish the relevant contracts and admit the claim?

The way Labour activists are characterising this pointless court case as "Hancock ruled to have unlawfully handed out contracts" is an egregious case of fake news. It's all over twitter and facebook. I imagine that's exactly what this rank self-publicist/ political activist wanted.

I dealt with government procurement regarding PPE etc. at this time and they were a total shambles. No wonder the documents went up 17 days late.

Complete non-story.