Legislation – The Competition Act 1998 (Health Services for Patients in England) (Coronavirus) (Public Policy Exclusion) Order 2022

This Order excludes from the Chapter I prohibition in the Competition Act 1998 (c. 41) agreements between the National Health Service Commissioning Board (NHS England) and providers who are not part of the NHS, between other NHS bodies and independent providers or between independent providers, intended to assist the NHS in addressing the effects or likely effects of coronavirus on the provision of health services to patients in England. The Chapter I prohibition precludes agreements between undertakings, decisions by associations of undertakings or concerted practices which may affect trade within the United Kingdom and which have as their object or effect the prevention, restriction or distortion of competition within the United Kingdom. Where there are exceptional and compelling reasons of public policy for doing so, the Secretary of State may exclude an agreement or agreements of a particular description from the Chapter I prohibition.

Article 3 of the Order specifies the activities qualifying for an exclusion and article 4 sets out other requirements which an agreement must meet in order to qualify for exclusion.

Articles 5 and 6 provide for agreements to be notified to the Secretary of State and for a register of the agreements to be compiled and published by the Secretary of State.

Article 7 provides that the Order expires at the end of 31st March 2022.

No impact assessment has been prepared for this Order. An Explanatory Memorandum has been prepared for this Order and is available alongside this instrument on the UK Legislation website www.legislation.gov.uk.