Court lifts procurement suspension, allows award of £110m contract

Communications giant BT had sought to force NSS to re-run the procurement exercise for the Scottish Wide Area Network (SWAN). Failing that, it called for the payment of £20m in damages.

The SWAN programme is intended to deliver a single public services network available for the use of any, and potentially all, public service organisations within Scotland.

The initial phase will deliver services to ‘four vanguard partners’. In addition to NHS Scotland and Education Scotland, they include two pathfinder consortia of councils.

It is understood that BT has requested leave to appeal the Court of Session's decision. This request will be considered at a court hearing next Tuesday (11 February).

The company had claimed that the tender process was flawed and “did not make sure the contract was awarded on the basis of the most economically advantageous bid, in accordance with the relevant Regulations”.

The claims were rejected by NSS, which insisted that the procurement was “fair, robust and through”.