Clause 20 - Duty to make references in relation to completed mergers
Enterprise Bill
9:30 am
Mr Mark Field (Cities of London and Westminster, Conservative)
I appreciate that we shall come back to some of the larger-scale issues relating to clause 20 in the stand part debate. However, I should be interested to receive some guidance from the Under-Secretary on my concern that much has been made of part 3 of the Bill in some way removing Ministers from the running of the merger regime. I am greatly concerned that potentially quite of lot of behind the scenes pressure will be brought to bear.
I do not share the view expressed by my hon. Friend the Member for Huntingdon (Mr. Djanogly), that politicians should necessarily be taken out of the merger arena. In part, those are political decisions and one has to accept that. Business and industry quite understandably look for clarity, consistency and some sort of predictability, but as political fortunes and ideas inevitably ebb and flow, the idea of there being predictability from decade to decade is a fallacious one.
However, my concern is that the OFT does not have a discretion because a statutory rule is in place. Each amendment makes reference to the fact that the OFT ''shall'' rather than may have a discretion to act in a certain way, which may result in even more political pressure behind the scenes. I am interested to know what the Under-Secretary has to say about that. Once the OFT is effectively no more than a rubber stamp, it will presumably be at the next stage when political pressure comes into play.
We shall discuss the whole issue in the broader surrounds of clause 20 and others, but with that concern in mind, I would be interested to hear what the Under-Secretary has to say.