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12 Gough Square

London

EC4A3DW

Our ref: L0317.001/L0318.001

Your ref:

Secretary of State for Health and Social Care

Houses of Parliament

London SW1A 0AA

By email

16 November 2020

Dear Secretary,

LETTER BEFORE ACTION UNDER THE PRE-ACTION PROTOCOL FOR JUDICIAL REVIEW

Re: Public Supply Contract Awarded to Saiger LLC

Introduction

We act for the Good Law Project (“GLP”) and EveryDoctor (“ED” and, together with GLP, the “Claimants”),

who seek to challenge the lawfulness of the decision of the Secretary of State for Health and Social

Care/the Department of Health and Social Care (hereafter collectively referred to as “DHSC”) to award a

public supply contract, within the meaning of regulation 2 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (“PCR

2015”), to Saiger LLC, a company incorporated under the laws of the state of Florida in the United States

of America (“Saiger”), for the “Supply of Personal Protective Equipment for Healthcare Workers for the

Care of Patients with Suspected or Confirmed Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19)” (the “Contract”). We

understand that the Personal Protective Equipment (“PPE”) which is to be supplied under the Contract

consists of surgical gowns.

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16 November 2020

From the information only recently made available, it appears that the Contract was formally awarded on

4 June 2020. It further appears that the Contract was made by direct award without any prior

advertisement or any competitive tender process. Its existence has only come to light following the

publication of a notice on the Contracts Finder Government portal on 23 October 2020 (which contained

no detail otherthan the date, value, and purported urgency of the Contract) (the “CF Notice”) and a notice

on the Tenders Electronic Daily (“TED”) portal on 5 November 2020, which contained limited further

information, including that it was for the purchase of surgical gowns (the “TED Notice”). The Contract

documentation has not been published on Contracts Finder or the TED portal.

The Claimants consider the award of the Contract to be unlawful and will issue proceedings seeking

declaratory relief unless satisfactory responses are provided by the DHSC in its response to this pre-action

letter.

1. Proposed Claim For Judicial Review

To:

Secretary of State for Health and Social Care

Department of Health and Social Care

39 Victoria Street

London

SW1H OEU

2. The Claimants

(1) The Good Law Project

3 East Point High Street

Seal

Sevenoaks

Kent

TN15 0EG

(2) EveryDoctor