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23 July 2021 / Nicholas Dobson
Issue: 7942 / Categories: Features , Public
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Public procurement: He knew he was right…

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Nicholas Dobson reports on Cabinet Office procurement decisions found unlawful through apparent bias
  • A fair-minded and informed observer would conclude that there was apparent bias by the Cabinet Office when it appointed a research agency without considering other potential competitors.

The prime minister’s former adviser, Dominic Cummings, is not noted for excessive constraint or diffidence in his public pronouncements. So, commenting on vaccine deployment, he tweeted about his ‘rushed instructions on how to change Vaccine Taskforce from another Hancock shitshow to low-friction-fast-decisions success’. Among the instructions was that: ‘…we need treatments by autumn, not powerpoints and meetings for months’ and ‘no usual bullshit and processes…’.

Cummings was consequently quick off the Twitter mark when Mrs Justice O’Farrell in the Technology and Construction Court found on 9 June 2021 in R (on the application of Good Law Project) v Minister for the Cabinet Office [2021] EWHC 1569 (TCC) that his recommended Cabinet Office appointment of Public First (PF)—an agency specialising in opinion research on complex public policy issues—was unlawful through

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