Written question asked by Susan Elan Jones (Labour) on Tuesday, 30 November 2010, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 2 December 2010. It was answered by Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat) on Tuesday, 7 December 2010 on behalf of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

Consumer Protection and Markets Authority

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what the budget was of (a) Consumer Direct and (b) the Consumer Affairs branch of the Office of Fair Trading in the latest period for which figures are available.

Answer: In the financial year 2010/11, the net budget for running Consumer Direct was set at £10.815 million and the net budget for the Strategic Solution Project was set at £4.199 million.The Strategic Solution Project aimed to secure the continuation of the Consumer Direct service beyond the expiry of existing contracts in March 2011. The project was on target to deliver a single contract for the provision of Consumer Direct up to 2016-17 but the procurement process was suspended in light of the government's ICT moratorium. The future operation of Consumer Direct will depend on the detail of the transfer of the service to Citizens Advice, which is not yet confirmed.The Office of Fair Trading does not have a separate Consumer Affairs branch. Since 2006 its structure has been arranged by markets rather than legislation, enabling it to look more easily at whole markets and to use all of the competition and consumer protection tools available to it to improve them where they are not operating effectively.

Secondary information