Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment their Department has made of the potential effect of the merger between Three and Vodafone on their Department's contracts with Vodafone.

As an open economy, this Government welcomes and encourages investment where it supports the Prime Minister’s goal of boosting UK growth and jobs, meets our stringent legal and regulatory requirements, and does not compromise our national security. The Government has robust powers under the National Security & Investment Act, which it introduced, to block or impose remedies on transactions that pose a national security risk.

As you will appreciate, we cannot comment on specific acquisitions nor the applicability of the National Security and Investment regime.

It is the responsibility of Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to assess the impact on consumers and competition in the market, with input from sectoral regulators.