Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much the NHS Trust Development Authority spent in 2013-14 to support NHS trusts in relation to the competition aspects of mergers and acquisitions; which trusts required such support; how much the NHS Trust Development Authority plans to spend in this area in 2014-15; and if he will publish a list of those trusts requiring such support.

Whilst the NHS Trust Development Authority contributes to costs of mergers and acquisitions, it is not able to disaggregate the spend into different components. Information in relation to the specific competition aspects of this spend is therefore not available.

The NHS Trust Development Authority does not record requests for support from trusts. All such requests are directed to Monitor or the Competition and Markets Authority for advice, as the expert bodies on mergers and acquisitions.