The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is responsible for looking into the awarding of rail franchises as part of its mergers work, and has therefore been investigating the award of the East Midlands Rail Franchise to Abellio. 

The Phase 1 probe has found competition concerns on 2 of the routes Abellio would operate – Norwich to Ely and Thetford to Ely. This is because under current proposals for the franchise, Abellio would operate both East Midlands Trains and Greater Anglia, and so provide the only train services on this line. The CMA is concerned that this could reduce competition, as passengers have no other rail options, which could lead to higher fares. The CMA has found no concerns on the other routes.

Joel Bamford, Senior Director of Mergers at the CMA, said: 

Thousands of people rely on this route, so it’s crucial that passengers don’t suffer as a result of reduced competition. 

If the franchise is awarded to Abellio as currently planned, we’re concerned passengers could face increased prices. 

We look forward to hearing from Abellio about how they will seek to overcome these concerns.

Abellio has offered to work with the CMA to keep fares and advance ticket availability at current levels on the 2 routes. In previous similar cases, such as the award of the Northern franchise to Arriva and FirstGroup and MTR’s acquisition of South Western, the CMA’s concerns were resolved by the operator agreeing to price-caps on the affected lines.

The CMA’s decision comes in advance of the start of the franchise, due to begin on 18 August. Further details can be found on the case page. 

Notes for editors

1. The CMA is the UK’s primary competition and consumer authority. It is an independent non-ministerial government department with responsibility for carrying out investigations into mergers, markets and the regulated industries and enforcing competition and consumer law. For CMA updates, follow us on Twitter @CMAgovuk, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
2. Under the merger control provisions of the Enterprise Act 2002 in conjunction with the Railways Act 1993, the CMA may look into the award of UK rail franchises to ensure that no competition concerns arise.
3. Under the Enterprise Act, Abellio East Midlands Ltd will now have 5 working days to propose undertakings in lieu (UILs) of reference to resolve the competition concerns raised by the CMA. If it does not propose UILs, or if the CMA is not satisfied with them, the merger will be referred to an in-depth (‘phase 2’) investigation.
4. The CMA will announce by 2 August 2019 its preliminary decision on whether any UILs offered by Abellio might be sufficient to resolve the competition concerns identified. If the CMA provisionally accepts UILs, a consultation will follow.

Media enquiries to the CMA should be directed to press@cma.gov.uk or 020 3738 6460.

The Veterinary Products Committee (VPC) is looking to appoint four new members:

• Veterinary immunologist
• Veterinary surgeon (mixed/small animal)
• Medical/clinical microbiologist
• Veterinary surgeon (fish)

Members receive £148 for each meeting attended and an additional £76 for preparation time.

Meetings are held at the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) offices in Surrey.

The VPC schedules three regular meetings a year (February, June and September typically) and it may occasionally be necessary to hold ad hoc meetings. Usually an Open meeting is held on the day before the September meeting.

Further information on the VPC is available on its website and from the VPC secretary, Sandra Russell, email: s.russell@vmd.defra.gsi.gov.uk or tel: 01932 338490.

Please contact Chris Abbott, c.abbott@vmd.defra.gsi.gov.uk for details of how to apply. The closing date for applications is noon on 23rd August 2019.

Summary

Public Health England South West coordinated a multi-intervention day with local healthcare providers, charities and services to provide TB screening for the rough sleeping/homeless community.

In addition to the screening, partners came together to extend the breadth of the event to include a wide range of other services – Hepatitis B, C and HIV, substance misuse, mental health services and GP services and housing support.

Preliminary results show that over half of the homeless and rough sleeping community were reached, a fantastic result for a community that is normally under served or hard to engage with.

What was involved

Public Health England led the coordination of a multi intervention day to include a TB screening session aimed at the homeless/rough sleeping community in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.

The initial motivation for the event came after one rough sleeper with infectious lung TB had been on the streets of Bournemouth during much of 2018 and was known to have spent a substantial amount of time close to other homeless people.

In normal circumstances, TB screening would be offered to those people most likely to have been in close prolonged contact with this person. However, the team felt that this could provide a great opportunity to offer a range of health and social care services to a wider group of highly vulnerable people.

Once the idea was raised to broaden the intervention, there was a fantastic response from commissioners and health care providers from multiple agencies across Dorset. The event took two months from the first meeting to event day.

Agencies involved in planning the day and providing the services included:

• East Dorset TB Service (Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospital [RBCH])
• RBCH Hepatology Service
• the Homeless HealthCare Service
• a local GP
• Addaction (a substance misuse treatment and support service)
• the Dorset Blood Borne Virus Service
• St Mungo’s
• BH1 Project
• the Salvation Army
• local church groups
• Public Health England
• Public Health Dorset
• BCP Council
• NHS Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG)

Services provided

A mobile chest X-Ray van (from NHS Find and Treat) parked outside the Salvation Army building where the event was held. The van was the first stop for the clients, from where they could receive immediate results of their X-Ray. They were then encouraged to go into the building where the other services were available.

Clients had access to blood tests for TB, hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV, a mouth swab for hepatitis C (with immediate results and, if positive, the offer of a liver scan), registration and/or consultation with a GP, consultation with mental health services, substance misuse services and housing advice.

Free food and drink and a comfortable place to sit and talk was also available to them once they had had their chest X-ray and/or blood tests.

Results

The event was a huge success, far exceeding our expectations of a turn-out of 30 to 40 people.

In fact, people queued for most of the day – around 140 people attended:

• 138 people had chest X-rays (of which at least 12 had abnormalities identified and were referred for follow up)
• 86 people had blood tests
• several people were given and trained in the use of naloxone (an antidote to heroin overdose)
• 1 person with acute psychosis was referred to mental health services
• 3 rough sleepers were allocated housing
• many people accessed services that they would not otherwise have accessed

We are still collating the final outcomes.

What worked well

The familiarity of the venue

The event was hosted by the Salvation Army in Boscombe, opposite the BH1 Project – both are well known to the rough sleeping community who regularly use them for daytime shelter, access to washing facilities, food, advice and other drop in clinics.

Getting the message out to clients

The planning team gave a TB education session to local outreach workers to raise awareness of TB and the forthcoming event. The outreach workers were fantastic in getting the message out through their network using word of mouth, posters and cards that the planning team had prepared.

Transport

We were also fortunate enough to have the use of a minibus kindly donated by a local church, which was used to ‘round up’ our target population from local drop in centres, support groups, hostels and the streets.

Feedback showed

Clients were very grateful for the event. Comments included: “spot on”, “well organised”, “very supportive” and “thanks for caring about us”.

We also had some great comments from the service providers such as:

• “This is a fantastic example of multi-agency working”
• “It was a fantastic client focused event which surpassed many of our expectations. I found it particularly encouraging to see what can be done with the resources we already have when supported to work together”
• “It was a pleasure to be involved and work alongside everyone involved, so thank you for inviting me to be a part of this excellent initiative”

The overriding feeling was “when can we do it again?”

All agencies worked together both in the planning and on the day and there was a strong recognition that multi-disciplinary “hub” style working is vital to support these vulnerable clients and the fact that agencies were able to cooperate and work across organisational boundaries was refreshing.

Next steps

The local team have applied for a share of a PHE fund aimed to help the homeless and rough sleeping community and these partners have all expressed a desire to do this kind of working again.

Seeking evidence to help inform the development of a new approach for the allocation of additional fishing quota in England after Brexit.