Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to previous cases brought by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) against retailers under Chapter 1, Section 2, Subsection 2 of the Competition Act 1998, what discussions he has had with the OFT on the treatment of joint working between supermarkets to enable food security in the event of the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

The Office of Fair Trading was abolished in 2014 with its former functions being transferred to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the UK’s independent competition authority. The Government has regular discussions with the CMA to prepare for the UK’s exit from the European Union.