The Department of Health wrote to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) seeking views on the application of competition law to NHS Foundation Trusts further to the OFT guidance ‘Public bodies and competition law: A guide to the application of the Competition Act 1998′.
In its response, the OFT clarified in particular that:
- A body may be held to be acting as an ‘undertaking’ for some purposes but not for others, depending on which activity is being considered. Therefore, a whole FT would not be held to be an ‘undertaking’, only those services deemed to be ‘economic activities’.
- If a breach of competition law was found, the OFT, in taking action, would take into account the impact on a public body and the taxpayer.
See letter from Department of Health to OFT
See response from OFT to Department of Health
See ‘Public bodies and competition law: A guide to the application of the Competition Act 1998′ (OFT1389)
