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David Sawtell looks ahead from the Medirest judgment ‘The clearest point to be taken from the Medirest litigation is that the court will scrutinise the express terms of the contract.’The High Court and Court of Appeal decisions in Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust v Compass Group UK and Ireland (t/a Medirest) [2012]; [2013] have …
Continue reading "Contract: Keeping the faith"
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Luisa D’Alessandro considers the perils of standard terms and conditions Once an organisation has prepared a suitable set of terms, it is critical to make sure that those terms are properly incorporated into the agreement.For many routine purchases, buying departments will usually be faced with the standard terms and conditions of their suppliers. These will …
Continue reading "Purchasing: On your own terms"
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Simon Briskman looks at how to manage a contractual crisis This article examines some of the reasons outsourcing contract failures occur, and asks how we can anticipate and reduce the risk of failure, or else deal with the consequences.Most outsourcings are too big to fail. Customers may need a year or more to reprocure and …
Continue reading "Contracting: Finger in the dam"
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Dr Sam De Silva examines the use of balanced scorecards in outsourcing The balanced scorecard approach appeals to the CEO much more than a bevy of technical metrics (that he does not understand) because it focuses on the company’s business objectives.The balanced scorecard concept has been around for some time, but widespread awareness of it …
Continue reading "Outsourcing: Bingo!"
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In a follow-up article, Helen Rose and Adam Laverty analyse the Court of Appeal decision in Medirest The Court of Appeal rejected Medirest’s submission that there was an implied general duty of good faith under the contract, re-iterating that there is no general doctrine of good faith in English contract law.The recent Court of Appeal …
Continue reading "Medirest: An Update: Lack of faith"
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Michael Scott and Danielle Lodge question the wisdom of outsourcing health and safety responsibilities In any facilities management outsourcing project, the customer should accept it is not possible, nor advisable, to seek to transfer all health and safety risks to the service provider.In this article we question the wisdom of customers seeking to outsource their …
Continue reading "Health And Safety: Unhealthy decisions"
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Angus Walker reports on the progress of HS2 The government has published “guidance” on the decision, saying that it will re-run the consultation on compensation rather than challenge the decision, but that it won’t hold up progress on the project overall.The proposal for a high-speed railway line from London to the West Midlands remains on …
Continue reading "Infrastructure: (Nearly) stopped in its tracks"
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Wolfgang Tiede, Julia Spiesberger and Barbara von Gayling-Westphal review and contrast transparency requirements for public-private partnerships in Germany and the UK The lack of one homogenous framework leaves prospective parties to a public-private partnership with a plurality of potentially applicable rules together with soft laws and guidelines at different levels.This article assesses the transparency requirements …
Continue reading "Transparency: I can see clearly now"
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Jack Hayward turns his critical eye towards terms used and not often considered The “commissioners” that I ask seemed unable to explain adequately what their role involves and it seems to me to be a classic case of management speak.On Sunday lunchtime I generally head to my local pub where the ever-genial proprietors Russ and …
Continue reading "Update: The meaning of words"
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Helen Rose and Sean Ibbetson look at the lessons to be learned from Medirest Contracting parties may need to consider the effect of an obligation to act in good faith even where they have not agreed an express obligation to that effect.Obligations in commercial agreements to act in good faith are now common, particularly in …
Continue reading "Contract: Keep the faith"
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