[align=left]
Birmingham Care Consortium, R (on the application of) & Ors v Birmingham City Council, Court of Appeal - Administrative Court, October 17, 2002, [2002] EWHC 2188 (Admin)

CO/3653/2002
Neutral Citation No.: [2002] EWHC 2188 (Admin)
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
QUEENS BENCH DIVISION
ADMINISTRATIVE COURT
Royal Courts of Justice
Strand,
London, WC2A 2LL

Thursday 17 October 2002
Before:

THE HONOURABLE MR JUSTICE STANLEY BURNTON

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

THE QUEEN on the application of


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
(Transcript of the Handed Down Judgment of
Smith Bernal Reporting Limited, 190 Fleet Street
London EC4A 2AG
Tel No: 020 7421 4040 020 7421 4040, Fax No: 020 7831 8838
Official Shorthand Writers to the Court)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Mr Robin Green (instructed by Wood Shawe & Co) for the Claimant
Mr Christopher Baker (instructed by Birmingham Legal Services) for the Defendant

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Judgment
As Approved by the Court

Crown Copyright ©

Mr Justice Stanley Burnton:

1. The Claimants in these proceedings are:
(a) a consortium of nursing and care homes in Birmingham and the proprietors of a number of such homes; and
(b) persons who were entitled to be placed in care homes by the Birmingham City Council and complained that their choice of care home had been unlawfully restricted by it.
Unless otherwise indicated, my references below to "the Claimants" simpliciter are to the consortium and the proprietors of nursing and care homes only. I shall refer to the Claimants entitled to placements in nursing or care homes as "the individual Claimants". Unless otherwise indicated, references in my judgment to care homes include nursing homes.
2. In 1999 the Council entered into contracts with a large number of care homes on standard terms, including the terms as to charges and duration. The contract period commenced on 1 April 1999 and expired on 30 June 2002. The contract included provision for review of the contract price by the Council; the last review took effect in 2001. It provided that after expiry it would continue to have effect in relation to existing residents whose placements had not been terminated by the Council or the care home, unless it was replaced by a new contract. 3. In the period before the expiry of the contracts, consultations and negotiations took place between the Council and the care homes with which it contracted, including the Claimants, concerning, principally, the rates to be ...
[/align]