Ashford St Peter’s NHS Foundation Trust / Royal Surrey County NHS Foundation Trust merger inquiry

The CMA investigated the merger between Ashford and St Peter's Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (ASP) and Royal Surrey County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (RSC).

Administrative timetable

Published on 26 March 2015, as required by Rule 7 of the Competition and Markets Authority Rules of Procedure for Merger, Market and Special Reference Groups. Any revisions made to the timetable will be published on this website.

Phase 2 date Action
7 October 2015 Statutory deadline
Late September 2015 Publish final report
Early September 2015 Final deadline for all parties’ responses/submissions
Late August 2015 Consider possible remedies and response hearing(s) (if required)
14 August 2015 Provisional findings published
Late May 2015 Deadline for all parties’ responses/submissions required before provisional findings
May to early June 2015 Main party hearing, verify information, consider provisional findings
Late March to early April 2015 Publish statement of issues
Early March to May 2015 Gather information, issue questionnaires, hear third parties
26 February 2015 Merger reference made

Phase 2

Final report

Provisional findings

14 August 2015: The CMA has provisionally cleared the merger between ASP and RSC.

Notice of extension of inquiry period

4 August 2015: The inquiry group has decided to extent the reference period to 7 October 2015.

Undertakings

Evidence

The publication of the evidence of any party on the CMA’s webpages does not indicate in any way endorsement by the CMA of the views expressed in the evidence or acceptance of that evidence. Publication in this way is designed to assist public understanding of the issues.

Responses to issues statement

Hearing summaries

Initial submissions

The CMA’s merger inquiry is independent and welcomes submissions from all interested parties.

Analysis

Issues statement

16 April 2015: The deadline for comments on the issues statement has been extended to 5pm on 30 April 2015.

2 April 2015: The issues statement sets out the scope of the investigation. It outlines initial theories on what might be adversely affecting competition, but it does not set out findings or conclusions.

Inquiry group appointed

4 March 2015: The CMA has appointed the inquiry group.

Simon Polito (Chairman), Rosalind Hedley-Miller, Gavin Robert and Tim Tutton.

Terms of reference

26 February 2015: The CMA has referred the merger between Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Royal Surrey County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

Phase 1

Phase 1 date Action
12 March 2015 Decision published
26 February 2015 Reference decision announced
18 February 2015 Decision announced
22 December 2014 Launch of merger inquiry
22 December 2014 to 9 January 2015 Invitation to comment

Reference decision

Reference unless undertakings given

Launch of merger inquiry

19 December 2014: The CMA notified the parties that they had provided a satisfactory merger notice such that the initial period would commence on 22 December 2014.

Updates to this page

Published 19 December 2014
Last updated 16 September 2015 + show all updates
  1. Final report published.

  2. First published.