GCRA again denied permission to appeal

An application by the Guernsey Competition and Regulatory Authority for leave to appeal the Royal Court’s judgment of 10 March 2023, which found that the GCRA had reached a decision that was unreasonable and/or based on material errors as to the facts, has been rejected for a second time, this time by the Court of Appeal.

In his original judgment of 10 March 2023, the Bailiff Sir Richard McMahon allowed in full the Medical Specialist Group’s appeals against the GCRA’s substantive decision and its £1.5 million penalty decision.

Following an application for leave to appeal filed by the GCRA on 5 April 2023, the Bailiff rejected each of the grounds of appeal raised by the GCRA in a judgment issued on 7 June. He also rejected the argument that it was in the public interest for the issue to be examined by the Court of Appeal.

On 28 June the GCRA filed a renewed application for leave to appeal, this time to the Court of Appeal. In his judgment issued on 31 July, Lord Anderson of Ipswich KBE KC also rejected each of the GCRA's grounds of appeal and refused the application.

The GCRA had also filed its application out of time, but the Court of Appeal's decision on the grounds of appeal meant that it was unnecessary for the GCRA's application for an extension of time to be considered.

The MSG’s chief executive Jon Buckland says, ‘Our motivation throughout this long and painful process has been to protect the emergency and elective healthcare that we provide to the people of Guernsey under our contract with the States.’

'We sincerely hope that we will now be able to focus on our primary purpose of providing outstanding patient-centred services and improving the health of the community that we serve.’