The health and social care secretary’s decision to award three contracts to UK firm Abingdon Health has been the subject of a legal challenge by campaign group Good Law Project (GLP), which has sparked several cases challenging how contracts have been awarded during the pandemic. . GLP put forward a number of reasons why it believed the award of the Abingdon contracts was unlawful, including claims of bias, conflict of interest and a lack of equal treatment and transparency, but all were rejected. In a written decision, published on Friday, Mr Justice Waksman said the evaluation of the award of the contracts “must include an acknowledgment of market conditions which include (1) the urgent need to develop an effective LFT antibody that could to be used for mass use at home. tests, (2) some uncertainty as to whether this test will be developed in time, and (3) the risk that even if it were, the need for very large quantities may disappear. It cannot be said that it was for reasons of policy that should be ignored.” It also said that even if any of the grounds had succeeded, GLP did not have legal “standing” (sufficient interest in the dispute) to enable it to pursue the claim. In reaching his conclusion, he referred to the decision in GLP and the Runnymede Trust’s earlier challenge to the August 2020 appointment of Conservative peer Dido Harding as interim executive chair of the National Institute for Health Protection, in which GLP also failed to have standing. In a statement, Abingdon Health said it had received £10.3m from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) under the three contracts awarded in April, June and August 2020 and now expects to receive an additional £1.5 million, which was held as a defendant pending the outcome of the judicial review. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Chris Yates, chief executive of Abingdon Health, said the company had “done the right thing” during the pandemic by responding quickly, but had been caught in “political crossfire”. He added: “We are, of course, pleased with this judgement, but extremely disappointed that Abingdon’s reputation and good standing have been called into question by GLP.” The ruling said most of the tests DHSC bought from Abingdon were unused and expired.
