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Case Update

Update: We have permission to appeal

1st September 2021

Good Law Project is a not for profit campaign organisation that uses the law for a better world.

We know that the law, in the right hands, can be a fair and decent force for good. It is a practical tool for positive change and can make amazing things happen.

Good Law Project is a not for profit campaign organisation that uses the law for a better world.

We know that the law, in the right hands, can be a fair and decent force for good. It is a practical tool for positive change and can make amazing things happen.

On 29 June we published a blog explaining that a technical error by our solicitors – involving the papers being sent to the wrong email address at the Government Legal Department, corrected a day later – led the High Court to decide we could not bring our case about the award of contracts worth hundreds of millions of pounds in deeply suspicious circumstances to Pharmaceuticals Direct Limited.

We said that we would appeal and we have now heard that the Court of Appeal has given us permission to bring that appeal. The Court of Appeal has decided that our arguments have “a real prospect of success” and are “of wider general importance”. 

We think we can go beyond that: the title of our blog was: “We do not believe this is what the law should be or is.” Reading between the lines of the permission decision, we think the Court of Appeal is likely to agree.

As soon as we have a date for the hearing of our appeal we will let you know.

Good Law Project only exists thanks to donations from ordinary people across the UK. If you’re in a position to support our work, you can do so here.

Case

This article is part of our £100m+ Contract for Ex-Number 10 Adviser case

A firm linked to Samir Jassal, a two-time Conservative Party parliamentary candidate and former councillor, was awarded a £102.6 million Government PPE contract without any competition in July last year. It was only after our lawyers wrote to Government in March this year to ask about Pharmaceuticals Direct that this contract was disclosed, long after Boris Johnson had insisted all contract details were on record.

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