Competition Commission and Office of Fair Trading

Baroness Royall of Blaisdon Excerpts

Monday 22nd November 2010 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Royall of Blaisdon]

My Lords, the merger between the Competition Commission and the Office of Fair Trading will come as a consequence of the Public Bodies Bill. The Minister mentioned the forthcoming consultation; does she think that it would have been more appropriate to have the consultation before the legislation is passed?

[Baroness Wilcox]

Obviously, my Government do not think that, otherwise we would not be bringing the Bill forward at this time. That means that all the people with expertise who are taking part in debate on the Public Bodies Bill, whose opinions we are hearing—the noble Lords, Lord Borrie, Lord Whitty and Lord Dubs—will be feeding in to the process going forward that will start at the beginning of next year. I think it starts just in the new year, and we hope that the new body will be in place in 2013.

It may be worth my reminding the House that the previous Government were working on the possibility of merging the Office of Fair Trading and the Competition Commission, and it was only the election that stopped that work being completed. We are using some of the conclusions of that work to aid in formulating proposals for the consultation, and I hope for the support of noble Lords.