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%.

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.

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

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.

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.