Judge retires to consider verdict in Gama Aviation's judicial review challenge against States of Guernsey

Lt-Bailiff Hazel Marshall has retired to consider her decision in a judicial review case brought by Gama Aviation against the States of Guernsey, after both sides presented their arguments at a hearing. Gama Aviation is seeking a judicial review of the tender process by which the States of Guernsey, acting through the Health & Social Care Committee, appointed 247 Aviation to provide medevac services after Gama's own contract ended. The procurement was run jointly with Jersey, and the judge must first decide whether to grant leave for the review to proceed before, if applicable, conducting the review itself.

Gama raised three main grounds for its challenge: that Jersey changed its aircraft-type requirement late in the tender process; that there was a lack of transparency in the reasons and scoring applied to the respective bids; and that the evaluation of the scoring was irrational. The States of Guernsey argued there was no arguable case on the aircraft-change issue, contended that the judicial review application had not been filed sufficiently promptly, and urged the court to decline leave to proceed. The States also noted that although both islands ran the procurement together, tenderers were required to submit separate bids to each island and each island would contract independently for the services — though both islands had acknowledged a benefit in selecting the same operator.

Gama Aviation has provided air ambulance services to Guernsey and Jersey since August 2020, operating a twin-engined Beechcraft King Air B200 on a 24-hour, 365-days-a-year basis between the Channel Islands and UK health services.

Judicial review challenges to medevac and ambulance-service tenders are one route an incumbent operator can use when a long-running contract is lost to a new entrant, and they turn first on procedural questions — timeliness, transparency of scoring, and whether late changes to requirements were properly communicated — before any substantive review occurs. That threshold step, deciding whether to grant leave, matters because it determines whether the scoring and process itself ever gets examined in court at all.

Joint procurement across two jurisdictions, as Guernsey and Jersey ran here, adds a layer of complexity: separate bids and separate contracts for each island can coexist with a shared preference for a single operator, which is itself part of what Gama is contesting. The next dated milestone is Lt-Bailiff Marshall's ruling on leave and, if granted, the substance of the review — that decision will determine whether 247 Aviation's appointment stands or whether the tender process is reopened.