---

Supermarket Regulator

My hon. Friend is right. He highlights an important area that also affected the establishment of the Tesco store in my constituency in Hamilton. Promises were made and experts produced before the planning permission was granted, but as soon as it was granted they all disappeared. Local residents are left to face the inconvenience. The Office of Fair Trading has been wavering on the dominance of supermarkets in the grocery sector. The OFT’s goal is to make markets work well for consumers. Markets work well when there is vigorous competition between fair-dealing businesses. When markets work well, enterprise flourishes. In regard to supermarkets, that is clearly not the case. It has been difficult to make the OFT look into the matter and provide an adequate response and analysis of the situation. Indeed, the OFT has often been dubbed ““Only Fair to Tesco””. In August, the OFT came to the conclusion that there was no need for supermarkets to be subject to a full review by the Competition Commission, which conducts in-depth inquiries into mergers, markets and the regulation of the major industries. The evidence presented by, among others, the Association of Convenience Stores was not considered to be compelling enough to warrant a further investigation. It is commonly agreed that there were large holes in the OFT’s explanation for why it had decided not to refer the grocery market to competition regulators. However, on 28 October, there was a welcome U-turn. After heavy criticism, the OFT reconsidered its decision and said that it would consider investigating the four giants of the grocery market.