Legal background Legal background for Government intervention in mergers on national security grounds Special public interest cases
Section 59 of the Act allows the Secretary of State to intervene in a limited number of mergers of special public interest on the basis of the public interest considerations specified in section 58 of the Act (which, as already stated, include national security) where the standard jurisdictional thresholds relating to turnover and share of supply are not satisfied. These include for example, mergers involving Government defence contractors authorised to hold or receive confidential information. The subsequent process is similar to the public interest intervention procedure set out above, except that there is no competition assessment.