Competition and Markets Authority Chairman

Debate between Baroness Gustafsson and Lord Berkeley

Monday 27th January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Gustafsson (Lab)]

I thank the noble Lord for his question. As I reflect on my experience in driving investment, I do not think the two need to be mutually exclusive. When I reflect on our successes with driving investment, the green energy sector is a region in which we have seen considerable successes. This does not need to be a choice between one or the other. Executed correctly, there is an opportunity for us to drive growth while supporting sustainable energy initiatives.

[Lord Berkeley (Lab)]

My Lords, a large number of SMEs supplying Amazon have been complaining about its attitude, saying how very unfair it is and how anti-competitive some of Amazon’s policies are. Given that the new chair comes from Amazon, can the noble Baroness say that he will not bring those bad tendencies from Amazon into our wider competition environment?

[Baroness Gustafsson (Lab)]

I can hopefully provide some reassurance to my noble friend. There have already been instances where we are investigating Amazon regarding the supply of knives. There is no indication that we have any intention to go soft on these big technology companies. The new chairman’s role and experience within this industry, as well as other experiences such as the directorship of the Alan Turing Institute, will provide a wide raft of experience, which can only be advantageous and beneficial to the role.