Apasen Limited v London Borough of Tower Hamlets

Facts

The claimant, Apasen Limited, is a registered charity providing social care and community support services to vulnerable people in East London and a United Kingdom supplier for the purposes of section 100(2) of the Procurement Act 2023. The defendant, the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, is a contracting authority responsible for domiciliary care services in its area. In July 2023 the defendant advertised a procurement for domiciliary care services split into four geographical lots, and the claimant tendered for Areas 2 and 3. Anonymous whistleblowing allegations of corruption and financial impropriety against the claimant followed, prompting the defendant to commission PricewaterhouseCoopers to conduct an investigative audit and a forensic contract review. In October 2024 the claimant was unsuccessful for Area 2 and successful for Area 3, but the Area 3 award was made conditional on the audit's outcome. The claimant issued proceedings under Regulation 91 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, and the defendant then abandoned the original procurement. On 13 March 2025 the defendant published a transparency notice and a contract award notice signalling seven interim direct awards justified by urgency, two of them to the claimant; by a decision of 18 June 2025 it decided not to award to the claimant after all. The claimant sued, seeking set aside of the interim contracts among other relief. The defendant applied to strike out that part of the claim.