§ Mr. BreedTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what will be the impact of her Department's policy on concurrent powers for the utility regulators and the Office of Fair Trading on the organisation which will make the final decision on investigations concerning the utility markets. [37386]
§ Mrs. BeckettThe Competition Bill provides for the utility sector regulators to exercise concurrently most of the functions of the Director General of Fair Trading in applying and enforcing the prohibitions in relation to their sectors. As set out in the Green Paper "A Fair Deal for Consumers"[CM3898], the Government believe it is important for the development of sectoral regulation that each of the regulators should be able to exercise concurrent powers in their respective areas.