CL-2024-000308 - [2025] EWHC 1332 (Comm)

By Change Control Note No 188 agreed in December 2018 as part of the Blue Lights Contracts Umbrella Change Control Note 2 (CCN 188), SoS and Airwave agreed to amend the National Shut Down Target Date to 31 December 2022, or such later date as SoS specified in accordance with UCCN 1 .

Change Control Note No 187 (CCN 187) was agreed between SoS and Airwave in 2018 at the same time as CCN 188. Paragraphs 3 and 4 of CCN 187 are at the heart of this dispute and I consider them in detail below.

On 20 December 2021, in exercise of the power granted to SoS by CCN 174, SoS issued a National Shut Down Notice to Airwave to extend the National Shut Down Target Date to 31 December 2026. On receipt of this National Shut Down Notice, Airwave was contractually obliged to target the shutdown of the Airwave Network on a national basis on 31 December 2026. There was no CCN process in connection with this Notice, and the remaining contractual terms as agreed between the parties and in force as of the date of the National Shut Down Notice remained in force unamended.

On 13 March 2024, the Home Office issued a Deferred National Shut Down Notice extending the National Shut Down Target Date to 31 December 2029. There has been no CCN process in connection with the Deferred National Shut Down Notice, and the remaining contractual terms as agreed between the parties and in force as at March 2024 (the date of the Deferred National Shut Down Notice) remain in force unamended.

The issue of construction for the Court concerns how the Core Service Charges are to be indexed from 1 April 2020 onwards after the end of CY20.

In 2018, when the parties agreed to extend the Airwave Network to at least 31 December 2022, they also agreed the Core Service Charges for those services from January 2020 to December 2022.