Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the accessibility of the Competition and Markets Authority's SMS investigation into Google's general search and search advertising services, published on 14 January 2025.

The CMA has been given bespoke tools to increase competition in digital markets through the Digital Markets, Competition, Consumers Act 2024. Strategic Market Status investigations are the gateway into the regime and interested stakeholders can engage with the process, including firms under investigation, relevant third parties and the wider public.

Decisions on which SMS investigations to start are for the CMA as the UK’s independent competition authority.