Asked by: Lord Mott (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many members of staff the Competition and Markets Authority employs in the (1) advocacy, and (2) strategy, teams; and what is the total annual budget for each team.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) currently employs five full time equivalent staff in its advocacy team with a total annual budget of £0.6m.
The CMA employs 11 full time equivalent staff in its strategy team with a total annual budget of £1.1m
Full time equivalent staff numbers have been rounded to the nearest whole number.
Asked by: Lord Mott (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many members of staff the Competition and Markets Authority employed in the (1) communications, (2) competition enforcement, and (3) consumer protection teams, in each of the last six years; and what is the total annual budget for each team.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Competition and Markets Authority ("CMA") employs 35 staff in its Communications Team. The team was restructured, and its remit redefined, several times over the last six years, including in 2024. Therefore, the CMA does not have a readily available comparison for the previous six years. The Communications Team budget for the current financial year (2024/24) is £3.2m.
The CMA employs 131 staff in its Competition Enforcement Directorate.
The CMA employs 118 staff in its Consumer Protection and Markets Team.
Expenditure for each year from 2019-20 to 2023-24 is shown in the table below for the Competition Enforcement Directorate and Consumer Protection function. Since 2024, the latter has sat in a newly formed Consumer Protection and Markets Directorate. It would not be possible to provide directly comparable expenditure figures for 2018-19 because these were not separate reporting areas at that time.
2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | ||
Competition Enforcement | £m | 16.6 | 15.2 | 13.4 | 12.2 | 13.0 |
Consumer Protection | £m | 6.3 | 7.0 | 6.6 | 7.2 | 8.8 |
Asked by: Lord Mott (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many members of staff the Competition and Markets Authority employs in the communications team, and what is the total annual budget for the team.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The CMA currently employs 35 people in its Communications Team, which includes stakeholder and business engagement, compliance communications, digital communications, media relations and strategic communications. It has a total annual budget of £3.2m in the current financial year (2024-25). Like other organisations, the CMA is in the process of reviewing its future budgets, and expects to reduce the budget for the Communications Team by at least 10%.
Asked by: Lord Mott (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that regulators are accountable for their decisions and that businesses and consumers have avenues to challenge regulatory actions.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The ability to challenge regulatory decisions where necessary is critical to an effective regulatory system that drives economic growth. Most regulatory decisions are subject to internal appeal within regulators. This Government is committed to ensuring regulators are effective and fully accountable, as demonstrated by the Chancellor and Secretary of State for Business and Trade’s recent meeting with regulators where they scrutinised the pro-growth measures that regulators had identified to support the growth mission. The Department for Business and Trade and HM Treasury are leading the regulatory reform agenda across Government and we will set out our overall regulatory vision shortly.
Asked by: Lord Mott (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many members of staff the Competition and Markets Authority employs in each directorate.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Competition and Markets Authority employs approximately 1,120 staff. Full Time Equivalent staff numbers have been rounded to the nearest whole number. These figures include individuals with a CMA contract of employment, irrespective of the length of contract, whether being paid or not and so includes those on parental leave, a career break or those loaned or seconded out of the CMA. It excludes agency workers and CMA Board and Panel members.
The breakdown for each Directorate is as follows:
Senior Executive Team - 11
Competition Enforcement - 131
Consumer Protection and Markets - 118
Digital Markets Unit - 70
Mergers - 76
Office for the Internal Market and Subsidy Advice Unit - 33
Office of the Chief Economic Adviser - 160
Legal Service - 176
Corporate Services - 121
Data, Technology and Insight - 133
Strategy, Communications and Advocacy - 91
Asked by: Lord Mott (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve coordination between different regulatory bodies in the UK to ensure a coherent regulatory framework.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
This Government is determined to address concerns about the complexity and structure of the regulatory system by providing clear and consistent strategic direction, enabling regulators to plan effectively and deliver long-term objectives in line with the Government’s priorities. This is why the Prime Minister, in conjunction with the Chancellor and the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, wrote to key regulators asking them to provide concrete proposals to prioritise growth with the support of Government. Our overall regulatory vision, which will address these will issues, will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Lord Mott (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether all new regulations are subject to impact assessments, particularly in relation to their regional impact and impact on small businesses.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Where government intervention requires a legislative or policy change, departments are expected to analyse and assess the impact of the change on the different groups affected.
Impact assessments are generally required for all the Government's interventions of a regulatory nature that affect the private sector and-or civil society organisation or public services. The Better Regulation Framework requires regulatory provisions with impacts on business of greater than +/-£10 million to be accompanied by a final impact assessment which is laid before Parliament alongside the regulations. These assessments must consider impact on small and micro businesses, explore whether such businesses need to be in scope and, where appropriate, identify mitigations for the additional burden. Provisions with lower impacts should provide a proportionate assessment or estimate of the impacts in the accompanying Explanatory Notes or Memorandum.
Asked by: Lord Mott (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what research they are undertaking on the long-term effects of deep-sea mining.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
In 2022 the UK government commissioned an independent deep sea mining evidence review conducted by the British Geological Survey, National Oceanography Centre and Heriot Watt University and it was published in October 2022.
The government, through UK Research and Innovation and National Environment Research Council, (UKRI-NERC) is also funding the 5-year SMARTEX (Seabed Mining and Resilience to Experimental Impact) project which aims to build a better understanding of the ecosystem in the Pacific abyss and add to the scientific evidence base for informed decision-making by understanding the long-term environmental impacts of mining and whether this will have serious consequences for the ecosystem.
Asked by: Lord Mott (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of deep-sea mining.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The UK recognises the potential impacts of deep sea mining are not fully understood and supports a moratorium on the granting of mining licences by the International Seabed Authority (ISA) until sufficient scientific evidence is available to assess the impact on marine ecosystems, and strong, enforceable environmental regulations, standards and guidelines are adopted by the ISA.
Through the UK's sponsorship of academic research and existing exploration licences, over 70 peer-reviewed publications supporting a greater understanding of environmental issues associated with deep sea mining have already been produced, with more to come.
Asked by: Lord Mott (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government how they plan to ensure that deep seabed mining activities and their long-term effects are transparent.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The UK Government is committed to transparency in all aspects of its deep sea mining policy and strongly advocate for it as a core aspect of the UK's negotiating position at the International Seabed Authority.
The UK commissions independent reviews, sponsors academic research, and funds projects like the Seabed Mining and Resilience to Experimental Impact project. These initiatives aim to understand and publicly share the long-term environmental impacts, supporting informed decision-making and responsible policy development.