Both companies are independent providers of telecommunication infrastructure, including towers, pylons and masts, across the UK. As a result of the deal, Cellnex will acquire more than 7,000 sites currently operated by Arqiva.

Following a thorough investigation, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has found that the deal does not raise competition concerns in the supply of large telecommunication infrastructure like mobile towers and pylons. Cellnex is only a small player in this market at present and competition between the 2 companies has been limited. While the CMA has carefully considered whether Cellnex was in the process of expanding its UK presence before the merger, it ultimately found that Cellnex would not have been a significantly stronger competitor if it had not bought the Arqiva business.

The CMA also found that, following the merger, the combined business will continue to face competition from several other independent providers, including WIG and Freshwave Group. Major customers such as mobile network operators can also continue to use their own existing infrastructure sites, or develop their own new sites, as they do for the majority of their demand at present.

In addition, the CMA examined whether the deal would lead to a loss of competition in the future in the supply of ‘small cell’ telecommunication infrastructure, which is expected to be particularly important for 5G roll-out. Again, Cellnex is not a significant presence in this market at present, but the CMA carefully considered whether it was in the process of expanding to compete more strongly. Ultimately, the CMA did not find concerns because Cellnex’s plans were modest and the presence of a number of emerging companies and alternative technologies mean that customers will still have a significant amount of choice even after the merger.

To reach its conclusions, the CMA assessed a wide range of evidence and actively engaged with key players in the telecoms sector, including mobile network operators and Ofcom. The CMA also considered how ongoing market developments, such as the anticipated UK-wide roll-out of 5G and the Shared Rural Network project – which aims to improve mobile coverage in rural areas – might affect its assessment.

For media enquiries, contact the CMA press office on 020 3738 6460 or press@cma.gov.uk.

• 330 Chinese graduates who attended British Universities have made personal donations of £38,000 to buy two ventilators for the NHS

• A total of 78 ventilators have been shipped to the UK today (Tuesday 21st April)

The ventilators have been shipped today on a Virgin Atlantic flight from Shanghai to London alongside 76 other ventilators that have been purchased by the British Government alongside PPE for NHS Hospitals.

The former students were all part of the UK Government’s Chevening programme which enables future global leaders to study in the UK and create positive change around the world.

Minister of State for Asia Nigel Adams said:

Thank you to the graduates from the UK Government’s Chevening programme for their fundraising efforts.

In total we have now shipped over 800 ventilators from China and we continue to seek deliveries for more.

The donation was coordinated by Chevening alumni Alex Zhang who studied an MBA at Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge in 2008.

In the open letter the Alumni said:

We wish to show our support and care by standing with British people in fighting with the pandemic. We have good faith and wish a full and swift success in our joint effort.

The alumni group attached a note to each ventilators that read “We are with you” and included the Chinese proverb 风雨同舟 (which means ‘through wind and rain, we stand together / we are all in the same boat).

There are currently over 200,000 Chinese students studying in the UK and over 600,000 alumni from UK universities. UK Alumni are the bedrock of UK -China relations forming a strong professional network of ambassadors who can promote effective relations between UK and China.

Notes to Editors

Annex A

Dear British People,

Year 2020 saw a pandemic of COVID-19 pestering the whole world with a magnitude unseen before. We find that the United Kingdom, despite its high-quality health-care system, also suffers greatly from the pandemic, with most hospitals and health institutions coping badly and in dire need of medical supplies.

As the alumni of Chevening Scholars who have a fond memory of studying in UK, we wish to help British people ride out the storm by making our modest contributions. To that end, within one week, 330 Chevening scholars from different cities and various industries joined together, donated 38 thousand pounds, and purchased two sets of ventilators, which will be handed over to Department for Health & Social Care, UK next Monday (27th April 17).

As our motto of being visionary, initiative and exemplary goes, we Chinese Chevening Scholars wish to show our support and care by standing with British people in fighting with the pandemic. We have good faith and wish a full and swift success in our joint effort. Also we wish an early recovery and reunion with family to all suffering from the epidemic!

Long live the friendship between our two countries, and as Queen Elizabeth says in her recent public address: we will join with all nations across the globe in the common endeavour, and we will meet again!

With love from 330 Chinese Chevening Scholars

• Only go outside for food, health reasons or work (but only if you cannot work from home)
• If you go out, stay 2 metres (6ft) away from other people at all times
• Wash your hands as soon as you get home

Do not meet others, even friends or family.

You can spread the virus even if you don’t have symptoms.

COP26 President Alok Sharma gave a video speech at the opening of the Placencia Ambition Forum on Monday 20 April 2020:

The focus of the forum is to drive climate action and ambition in Nationally Determined Contributions in the lead up to COP26 and beyond in the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Thank you very much, Mr President.

I would like you to, if you may, Jose, to pass on our welcome and thanks to the Foreign Minister for being with us today. And I wanted before him to congratulate the Dominican Republic on your efforts to ensure that this issue was properly discussed and debated and also to ensure transparency for the Security Council in so doing. So thank you for that.

Let me also thank our briefers today but more importantly, thank them and their teams – and their vast teams, in many cases – for the actions that they are carrying out around the world in some of the most dangerous places. And it’s particularly nice to see David Beasley back and well.

Our briefers today have rung a huge alarm bell about situations across the world and they’ve all made clear that as the world faces this COVID-19 pandemic, this issue presents an ever more urgent challenge. Many people will die from this virus, but it’s a sad reality that every year many people will also die from food insecurity caused by conflict. And the risk of a further knock on impact from the virus on the food supply was made very clear by our briefers. And put simply, have a better chance of survival. And so I would urge all member states today to respond generously to existing humanitarian appeals.

Now, the UK is one of the largest humanitarian donors but humanitarian aid is a last resort. It’s a sign of political failing.

And Mr President, I want to focus today on two countries on this Council’s agenda, Yemen and Syria, whilst recognising the important comments made by our briefers on other situations in the world.

In Yemen, more than half of the population – a staggering 15.9 million people – are severely food insecure. And we therefore urge the Yemeni political leaders, particularly the Houthis, to respond constructively to the call by the Secretary-General and his Special Representative to immediately cease hostilities, focus on reaching a negotiated settlement, and do everything possible to counter a potentially disastrous outbreak of COVID-19. And that must include in facilitating unimpeded humanitarian access. Taking these actions is more important than ever to avoid a worsening of food insecurity and the already dire humanitarian situation in Yemen. Political leaders must now show real leadership and they must act in the interests of their people.

In Northwest Syria, the United Nations reports increased rates of stunting from malnutrition. Today, three out of ten displaced children under five years old in the Idlib region are stunted. The Syrian regime will not allow aid to flow from Damascus to the civilians in that area. So those children, like millions of other civilians in Northwest Syria, are entirely reliant on the cross-border delivery of humanitarian aid. It is crucial, therefore, that this Council renews the UN Security Council Resolution 2504 before it expires in July to allow the United Nations and its humanitarian partners to deliver the food, medical items and other assistance that people so desperately require.

And beyond the Northwest, we are deeply concerned for the fate of civilians all over Syria and needs to see effective humanitarian access across the country. And that concern is why the UK has given over $4 billion since the conflict began to Syria and Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries.

Mr President, it is unacceptable, illegal and inhumane to use hunger as a weapon of war. We call on all parties to conflict to recall their obligations under international humanitarian law, protect the most vulnerable, including women, children, persons with disabilities, older persons, refugees and internally displaced persons.

But, Mr President, this Council’s response to this challenge must include horizon scanning for future problems. In UNSCR 2417 the Council asked the Secretary-General to provide it with early warning about conflict-related famine and food insecurity conditions. Through this mechanism, the Council must consider the situations in Yemen and in South Sudan. It is our hope that the Secretary-General will consider further ways to continue responding in a timely manner to this request and member states should not constrain his ability to do so.

This council must also be prepared to take robust action to ensure the flow of humanitarian assistance to populations in need. In Security Council Resolution 2417 the Council recalled that it could consider adopting targeted sanctions where appropriate and in line with existing practices, which would apply to individuals or entities obstructing the delivery or distribution of humanitarian assistance to people in need whilst ensuring they do not negatively impact principal humanitarian assistance. So just as it is vital, this Council takes steps to ensure that humanitarian assistance can be received quickly and that the necessary exemptions are made from sanctions regimes to do so, as we have done recently in respect to North Korea. So too, we must pursue those individual actors impeding aid getting to those who so desperately need it.

Mr President, in 2018, at the adoption of Resolution 2417, the United Kingdom’s representative concluded his intervention by saying “the lesson is clear: humanitarian aid can only ever be a sticking plaster. The solutions are political’.

Mr President, that remains the case.

Thank you.