Court confirms approach to applications for injunctions made during an on-going procurement process

Under the public procurement remedies regime, a public contract procurement process must be suspended if an aggrieved bidder brings a legal challenge; and the contracting authority will have to apply for a Court order to lift this automatic suspension. The test which the Courts will apply in determining such an application will be no different from the test that the Courts have traditionally applied in assessing applications for interim injunctions made by aggrieved bidders under the old regime. Whilst the tables appears to have been turned in bidders’ favour by the new remedies regime, bidders still need to make sure that their complaints have a sound legal foundation in order to derive a meaningful benefit from the new automatic suspension remedy.