Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking (1) to support the establishment of a Digital Markets Unit within the Competition and Markets Authority, (2) to provide the necessary financial support for the recruitment of personnel to the new Digital Markets Unit, and (3) to ensure the new Digital Markets Unit has the necessary powers to intervene on a statutory basis.

The Government established a new non-statutory Digital Markets Unit (DMU), housed within the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), in April 2021 to begin to put into effect the pro-competition regime. We will legislate to put the Digital Markets Unit on a statutory footing as soon as parliamentary time allows.

At the recent Spending Review, the Government agreed to provide the CMA with an additional £20 million by 2024-25 to support the dedicated Digital Markets Unit and other CMA functions.

The DMU will have a range of powers to monitor and enforce the regime. The focus of the regime will be on resolving concerns through constructive engagement with firms, without the need for formal investigations. The DMU will need, however, robust powers to deter and tackle non-compliance. We set out our proposals for these powers in our 2021 consultation, and will publish our response to that consultation in due course.