Judge lifts automatic suspension in procurement challenge over provision of visa services to Home Office
The High Court has lifted the automatic suspension in a procurement challenge involving contracts for the provision of visa and citizenship application services to the Home Office.
In Teleperformance Contact Ltd v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023] EWHC 2481 (TCC) Mr Justice Constable concluded that the automatic suspension was no longer needed.
It had been imposed under regulation 95(1) of The Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and prevented the Home Office entering into the contracts whose award has been challenged
11KBW, whose Joseph Barrett appeared for interested party VF Worldwide, said the latter had been able to provide detailed evidence demonstrating that a number of allegations made by Teleperformance Contact were unfounded.
The set said Teleperformance Contact argued that loss of the visa service contracts would significantly prejudice the capability of its corporate group to effectively compete for other opportunities for visa and immigration services.
It said Constable J accepted evidence from VF Worldwide that this would not be the case and noted the judge variously described Teleperformance Contact’s evidence as “imprecise and vague”, “extremely vague” and “considerably overstated”.
Constable J held that damages would be an adequate remedy for Teleperformance Contact and so the court should lift the suspension.
11KBW said the judgment provided important guidance on the court’s approach to injunctive relief in circumstances where a claimant forms part of a larger corporate group, in particular the extent to which damage or prejudice suffered by other corporate group members may be relevant to the court’s application of American Cyanamid principles (American Cyanamid v Ethicon [1975]).
The five contracts for the provision of visa and citizenship application services were let in five geographical lots with an estimated total value of £1.2bn but Teleperformance Contact was successful only in one lot valued at £163m, with VF Worldwide taking the remainder.
Teleperformance Contact brought proceedings on the basis that the assessment of bids had been undertaken incorrectly and that it would suffer loss as a result.
Mark Smulian
