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Jaevee Homes v Fincham [2025] EWHC 942 (TCC)
![Jaevee Homes v Fincham [2025] EWHC 942 (TCC)](https://in2thebargain.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/court-case-pic.png?w=577)
Court found the Contract was agreed by an exchange of WhatsApp messages and that the parties had agreed that the Defendant was free to submit an application for payment by way of invoice at any stage during each month cycle. The Court also stated that agreement as to the duration of the works, start date…
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Our next free webinar will be a GO-LIVE-SPECIAL on 24 February 2025 at 12:30
…. It was fantastic to be joined by 264 people on our webinar last week when we discussed the new Procurement Specific Questionnaire PA2023. Thank you for all the great feedback, and we are pleased you enjoyed the PA2023 quiz. Due to popular demand we will be doing more of these going forward.Our next free…
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Ignoring the red flashing light
Whistleblower reports, KPMG auditors alarm flashing red-red-red, police investigation, and with £13.5million overspent and unnecessary maintenance work carried out…. How could the Council miss the warning signs that something was amiss? Heminsley Law’s report (attached below) makes for shocking reading…… Précis: An independent report by Heminsley Law has revealed that senior officers at Guildford Borough…
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PA2023 E-Learning Resources – Glossary
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NHS signed Palantir contract – then carried on negotiating
How can a public body sign a contract that isn’t even finished? It’s time for NHS England to come clean over its contract with data giant Palantir. This is an interesting read from the Good Law Project. NHS signed Palantir contract – then carried on negotiating – Good Law Project
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By how much can you change an existing contract? The answer is not a lot.
Making changes to existing contracts is common. What is not so common is a challenge in the Courts to such changes. In James Waste Management LLP v Essex County Council it was alleged by James Waste that Essex Council had varied a contract beyond the narrow boundaries permitted by the Public Contracts Regulation 2015 (“PCR…
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The new Procurement Bill – Moving from MEAT to MAT – What Does It Mean for Procurement Teams?
There is an ongoing debate among procurement professionals about the change in the New Procurement Bill to the basis of assessing competitive tenders from Most Economically Advantageous Tenders (MEAT) to the Most Advantageous Tenders (MAT). Is there a do-nothing option? At first glance, some of you may say there is little difference. In many cases,…
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Update on the new Procurement Bill – feels like the timetable is slipping.
Well summer has finally arrived and the Procurement Bill is still winding its way through parliament. Is Royal Assent in the late summer / autumn still possible? We are getting closer, but the timetable is now looking tight. The secondary legislation will take time to draft and the looming general election in May 2024 could…
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Are your CCTV systems spying on you? How can procurement help?
Three-fifths (61%) of public bodies in the UK are using CCTV systems made by Chinese companies that should be “debarred from our procurement supply chains”, according to the campaign group Big Brother Watch. In a consultation submission to the UK Procurement Bill, Big Brother Watch said CCTV systems made by Hikvision and Dahua were in…
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How often do you see overpriced tender bids that just do not make sense – well sometimes that is because they are rigged
Following an investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), 10 UK-based construction firms have been fined £59,334,957 for colluding on prices through illegal cartel agreements when submitting bids in competitive tenders for contracts. These bids were rigged, deceiving the customer that they were competitive when that was not the case. The bids were rigged…
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The new Procurement Bill – The ability to make post award changes to a contract is likely to be tempered by enhanced disclosure and transparency.
Change is inevitable and nowhere is this truer than with contracts. It is almost inevitable that the moment a contract is signed it is out of date and in need of revision; and this goes on throughout the contract’s life. However, in the world of public procurement change is regulated and this regulation is itself…
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All change – A new Standard Questionnaire, an extended implementation deadline and further change to follow under the new Procurement Act
The Cabinet Office has published PPN 03/23 Standard Selection Questionnaire (SQ) and accompanying statutory guidance. This had initially been effective from 1 April 2023 but this has now been pushed back to 1 June 2023. The SQ was originally introduced in 2016 as a means of standardising the supplier selection process in above threshold procurement…
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England’s NHS Provider Selection Regime – where competitive tendering is only an option rather than a requirement.
The NHS Provider Selection Regime (PSR) will be a new set of rules for procuring healthcare services in England. The PSR is intended to provide a regulatory framework for the award of healthcare contracts by NHS commissioners and local authorities that falls outside the requirements of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and the New Procurement…
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The UK Procurement Bill’s proposed change from five current procurement procedures down to two raises many questions for contracting authorities and their suppliers.
Under the existing Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (PCR 2015) regime public sector buyers must select which of the five permitted procedures most closely matches their strategy, and thereafter they must follow the selected procedure’s rules with little room for flexibility. The current PCR 2015 regulations offer a range of options, depending on the buyer’s need, from…
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Is there slave labour in your supply chain? If you are buying solar panels or lithium-ion batteries the answer is most likely yes, you do.
PPN 02/23 Tackling Modern Slavery in Government Supply Chains was issued last month and sets out the UK Government’s commitment to tackling the scourge of modern slavery (an umbrella term that encompasses the offences of slavery, servitude, forced and compulsory labour and human trafficking). This guidance is clear that UK Government departments must take action…
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Can you get access to your data held by a third party service provider? Ealing Council could not.
We often see situations where a contracting authority has difficulty accessing data which a service provider is either unwilling or unable to share. This can cause real problems in the delivery of routine business, as well as understanding and assessing the performance of contractors, not to mention obtaining the right information for the next procurement.…
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Looks like the Government has still not published all Covid contracts – what could they be hiding or have they simply lost the contracts?
Back in March 2021, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, said in Parliament that details of all Covid contracts were now “on the record”. A month later, Cabinet Minister Julia Lopez, claimed “all historical covid-related contracts” had been published. However, an investigation by Good Law Project has found examples of 29 deals awarded where the contracts…
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Something smells here
So the government has decided that paying a settlement of £29m is in the best interest of taxpayers even though they did nothing wrong and there were no failings in the procurement process. There must be more to this otherwise it does not make any sense….………….I welcome your thoughts on what might be happening here.…
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Toothless….
What is the point of transparency when accountability is toothless……….? I fully agree with the UK Anti-Corruption Coalition (UKACC) who has warned that plans included in the new Procurement Bill to lift the financial threshold for publication of transparency documents from £2m to £5m will create a £4bn accountability gap in use of UK public…
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A trade in human suffering
The claim here is that Tesco (and by implication other retailers) have tried to place as much distance as possible between themselves and the source of their supply chains, with the intent of escaping responsibility for abusive working conditions and low pay. We all know that when we pay £10 for a pair of jeans…
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Scot-Free
PPE Medpro is being sued because the goods supplied did not meet the specification. What appals me about this case is that is seems that the gross dishonesty and blatant abuse of power that allowed the great and good involved to profit to the tune of hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money is…
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The importance of maintaining basic standards of public accountability
An insightful read from the NAO. Gareth Davies’ three focus points are spot on…. but for me the first (integrity and accountability) is paramount………. Efficiency savings require learning past lessons – National Audit Office (NAO) insight Gareth Davies: “I draw three big lessons for public spending in large scale emergencies. Firstly, the importance of…
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Do you have a contract that rewards the supplier for failure?
Looks like the Avanti West Cost contract does just that. Avanti West Coast rewarded with £6.5m in bonuses – BBC News “Avanti was rewarded for “operational performance, customer experience, financial performance and management fees”. However during some of that period, between July and September 2021, Avanti train services fell by 21.1% and its trains were…
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UK public procurement is changing
UK public procurement is about to face the biggest upheaval seen in a generation. For as long as most of us can remember all UK public procurement has been governed based on EU regulations, but from 2023 this will all change. On 10 May 2022, Her Majesty the Queen, outlined in Parliament a new Procurement…
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WorldCC member meeting
Excited to once again be hosting the upcoming WorldCC Member Meeting in London on November 29th. Looking forward to connecting in person with so many colleagues and friends. This event is open to WorldCC members and is free to attend.Book your place https://lnkd.in/eJPNpqNP
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