Clause 1 - The Office of Fair Trading
Enterprise Bill
11:00 am
Miss Melanie Johnson (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department of Trade and Industry; Welwyn Hatfield, Labour)
The clause will create a new body corporate to be known as the Office of Fair Trading, or the OFT. The organisation currently known as the OFT is not a statutory body, but simply the administrative support that has grown around the Director General of Fair Trading—the DGFT—to support him in the exercise of his statutory functions. The office of DGFT is abolished in clause 2.
The OFT name has traditionally been used when publicising and explaining the work of the DGFT. However, references in the Bill to the OFT are purely to the new corporate authority proposed in the clause. The new OFT will consist of a board, headed by a chairman. The board will include non-executive members and people with a range of skills, expertise and abilities relevant to competition or consumer protection. It will widen the expertise involved in decision making and will strengthen the link between competition and consumer protection. It will also depersonalise regulation in this important area.
The DGFT currently has a wide range of functions in the areas of competition and consumer protection, many of which are being reformed in the Bill. The Government believe that in the light of the reforms, it is no longer appropriate for all those powers to be vested in one individual. John Vickers, the current DGFT, supports the proposals. He has worked closely with me on taking this forward and I value his support.
The new OFT will be independent, encompass a broad mix of interests and skills in the decision-making process, will be fully accountable through working arrangements that are open and clear, and will be able to act swiftly and effectively.