Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the impact of the collapse of online travel agents in the low-cost carrier sector on (a) competition, (b) consumers, (c) that market and (d) public funds.

Under competition law, responsibility for investigating individual competition issues falls to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the UK’s competition authority. As an independent authority, the CMA has discretion to investigate competition cases which, according to its prioritisation principles, it considers most appropriate. The CMA also has powers to conduct detailed examinations of why particular markets may not be working well, and decide what remedial action is appropriate. Concerns about market competition can be submitted to the CMA.