Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether the Competition and Markets Authority has undertaken reviews of the acquisitions of (1) Barchester Healthcare, and (2) HC-ONE assets, by Welltower; and whether they considered the proportion of residents in homes run by those companies that are self-funded as part of those reviews.

Merger investigations by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) are independent of Government. The CMA reviews mergers that meet certain criteria, for example the size of the company being acquired, and whether it believes the merger could result in a substantial lessening of competition.