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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the First Delegated Legislation Committee of Wednesday 10 April 2019 and the oral contribution of the member for Sefton Central, what assessment he has made of the expertise of the staff recruited by the CMA with responsibilities for the state aid regime.

The Government has supported the CMA in ensuring that it has robust and appropriate plans in place to recruit and train staff.

We understand the CMA has already recruited and trained the staff that it considers necessary to start operating the regime at the point this is required.

These staff join an organisation which is already highly skilled and experienced in dealing with markets and competition issues. The CMA has assured us that in recruiting its State aid staff, it has continued to recruit staff of the highest calibre, who are capable of delivering work of the high standards that will continue to be required by the CMA. In addition, during February and March those staff who are expected to be working on State aid cases each received extensive State aid training.

Both the National Audit Office (NAO) and the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) have over the last year undertaken assurance reviews of the CMA’s preparedness to take on its State aid role and found that the CMA’s plans were robust.