Competition and Markets Authority Chairman

Lord Fox Excerpts

Monday 27th January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Gustafsson (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend for that question. He is right; regulation and growth need not be mutually exclusive. This is about creating sustainable long-term growth that protects not only consumers but businesses, so that they have a fair, competitive and open ground on which to compete.

[Lord Fox (LD)]

My Lords, whether you characterise the change in chairmanship of the CMA as a sacking or not, all the government statements are clearly designed to create a change in behaviour within the CMA. If this change of behaviour had been applied for the past two years, say, could the Minister tell us which decisions the CMA made would have been different? How much more growth would we have had over those two years, had the CMA been applying the Government’s new strictures?

[Baroness Gustafsson (Lab)]

I come back to a prior answer; this is not about how we look at independent tactical decisions on a case-by-case basis and reflect on what would or could have been. This is about no longer accepting dormant growth within the economy, viewing our regulators through the lens of how we create long-term sustainable growth and making sure that we are aligned with that. To that end, we are consulting on a new strategic steer regarding the CMA, which is expected soon.