The Commission had considered bids tendered in open competition to run The National Lottery. Neither of the two candidates who entered bids was considered to have satisfied all the criteria necessary to be given the relevant licence. The Commission decided to abandon the competitive procedure and then gave one of the bidders an opportunity to allay its concerns about their suitability. It did not give the same opportunity to Camelot.
Held: This was conspicuously unfair.
Where an authority was exercising a statutory power, that power must be exercised fairly. It was unacceptably unfair, in a licensing procedure, to continue negotiations with only one of two applicants where the applications of both had been rejected on the first round. Such a lack of even-handedness required clear and compelling justification which was absent in this case. Each applicant must be given the same opportunity to negotiate.
Richards J
Times 12-Oct-2000, [2001] EMLR 3, [2000] EWHC Admin 391
Bailii
England and Wales
Citing:
Applied – Regina v Commissioners of Inland Revenue, ex parte Unilever plc CA 1996
The Revenue had refused to exercise a discretion in favour of the taxpayer in the same form it had granted for over twenty years. The taxpayer complained that this was unfair.
Held: The new approach to late applications, brought in without any . .
Cited by:
Cited – London Borough of Lewisham and Others), Regina (on The Application of) v Assessment and Qualifications Alliance and Others Admn 13-Feb-2013
Judicial review was sought of the changes to the marking systems for GCSE English in 2012.
Held: The claim failed. Though properly brought, the failure was in the underlying structue of the qualification, and not in the respondent’s attempts . .
Cited – Gallaher Group Ltd and Others, Regina (on The Application of) v The Competition and Markets Authority SC 16-May-2018
Extent and consequences of duties of ‘equal treatment’ or ‘fairness’, said to have been owed by the Office of Fair Trading to those subject to investigation under the Competition Act 1998. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 25 July 2021; Ref: scu.140206