Cases - Letting International Ltd v London Borough of Newham
Record details
- Name
- Letting International Ltd v London Borough of Newham
- Date
- [2008]
- Citation
- EWHC 1583 (QB)
- Legislation
- Keywords
- Transparency - selection criteria - distinguishing of award criteria - tendering and procurement
- Summary
-
This was the first major case to consider the impact of Lianakis and the concept of transparency and reinforce the position that a contracting authority cannot apply weightings, rules or sub criteria that it has not previously brought to the tenderers’ attention.
As Mr Justice Silbler observed at the start of his judgment:
‘Transparency means that parties proposing to tender … have the right to be informed of the criteria to be used in selecting the successful tender and their respective significance.’
The judge said that a public body should disclose all information which could affect the preparation of the tender documents by a bidder. In the Newham case ‘bonus points’ above the maximum number of points were available for exceeding the requirements but the bidders were not told. This was not legitimate and the judge ruled that there can be no such secret criteria at either stage.
This also means that once a process has been set in motion such criteria cannot technically be amended, refined, subdivided or re-weighted.