Costs
R (on the application of Good Law Project Ltd) v Secretary of State for Health & Social Care; Good Law Project Ltd v Bell [2021] EWHC 2783 (TCC), [2021] All ER (D) 103 (Oct)
The Technology and Construction Court considered the costs of a disclosure application, brought by the claimant company not-for-profit organisation, which related to email correspondence of the respondent professor of medicine in relation to the engagement of the interested party (Abingdon) by the defendant Secretary of State. The Secretary of State had awarded certain contracts to Abingdon for the manufacture and supply of rapid COVID-19 antibody tests during the COVID-19 pandemic and the claimant had challenged those contract awards, among other things, as being contrary to the Public Contract Regulations 2015 (SI 2015/102). In a previous hearing, it had been directed that in order for the court to consider the matter fairly, an application for third-party disclosure should be made against the professor. In the present proceedings, the court held, in considering CPR Pt 46.1(3)(a), that the justice of the case required an order that each party should