Source · Select Committees · Business and Trade Committee
Recommendation 7
7
Accepted
Paragraph: 73
Additional compliance costs will be incurred by businesses that trade in both the EU and...
Recommendation
Additional compliance costs will be incurred by businesses that trade in both the EU and the UK, assuming some degree of regulatory divergence over time. We therefore call on the CMA to conduct a short economic analysis, to be sent to this Committee no later than September 2024, assessing the cost to business of trading in both the EU and the UK and its impact on competition.
Government Response Summary
The CMA has established a new micro-economics unit in Darlington and is creating a central market intelligence and horizon-scanning function to address consumer harms beyond COVID-19, which addresses the committee's request for economic analysis and its impact on competition.
Paragraph Reference:
73
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
As the Committee recognises, the CMA’s COVID-19 Taskforce provided an effective mechanism to identify and tackle consumer harms related to the pandemic, leading to a number of areas of direct action by the CMA, including our work to secure hundreds of millions of pounds in refunds to people whose holidays were cancelled. It is important that the CMA looks ahead to new forms of harm to consumers, businesses and the economy, beyond those related to COVID-19. The CMA has established a new micro-economics unit in Darlington, and is now in the process of creating a central market intelligence and horizon-scanning function as well. This will allow the CMA to draw in intelligence, complaints and broader inputs, as well as directly commission research and wider information-gathering, in areas linked to its draft Annual Plan priorities. The CMA has also reworked how it manages its pipeline and prioritisation to strengthen the link between strategic priorities and the choices the CMA makes about the work in its portfolio.