UT/2023/000021 - [2024] UKUT 00334 (TCC)

Starting, consistent with the proper approach indicated by the case-law above, with the contractual position, each of the contracts clearly reflects an obligation on the Trust to provide services and an obligation on the local authority to make payment. The two obligations are plainly reciprocal. Each contract also contains termination provisions, entitling the local authority to cease paying if there are failures in the agreed service level, or for the Trust to terminate its service obligations if the local authority defaults on payment. On a straightforward contractual analysis, the requisite legal relationship or direct link between the remuneration received and the service given is undoubtedly present.

The Trust does not disavow the existence of the contract but emphasises the need to look at the wider reality and public health provision context in which the contract subsists. Relying on the matters identified below, Mr Edwards submits that, when that is done, the requisite direct link is not present.