October 2, 2025
On 1 October 2025, the Commercial Court handed down its highly-anticipated judgment in The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care v PPE Medpro [2025] EWHC 2486 (Comm). Tiran Nersessian, Albert Sampson, and Josh O’Neill (led by Paul Stanley KC of Essex Court Chambers) acted for the successful Claimant (“DHSC”). Nicholas Wright acted with Tiran Nersessian and Albert Sampson in earlier stages of the claim.
The claim concerned whether 25 million sterile surgical gowns, supplied by the Defendant (“Medpro”) to the Government at the height of the Covid-19 Pandemic, were compliant with the contract, raising issues of contractual construction, standards under the relevant medical device regulations, sterility and sterility assurance, estoppel, rejection, and damages. The claim was a flagship case for DHSC and has attracted considerable press coverage.
The judgment of Mrs Justice Cockerill DBE found that Medpro’s sterile gowns were supplied in breach of the contract in three respects: (i) having not been manufactured and sterilised in accordance with an appropriate validated method, they were not compatible with the contractual sterility assurance level (“SAL”); (ii) through a failure to comply with the sterility standard of EN-556-1; and (iii) through a failure to comply with the CE-marking required by the contract.
Pursuant to the judgment, DHSC is entitled to the full contract price as damages. DHSC defeated Medpro’s argument that it ought to have mitigated its loss by, among other things, attempting to re-use or re-sell the gowns. DHSC also defeated Medpro’s estoppel defence, and Medpro’s counterclaims for rectification and negligent misstatement.
Read the judgment.
