Making the case for competition in policymaking – lessons from CMA advocacy 2014–2018

This article draws on the experience of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) of using its powers to provide information and advice to government, including the power to make recommendations on legislation, and derives some lessons for the CMA itself and for other competition authorities seeking to use similar powers. It describes the regime within which the CMA operates, places its current activities in a historical context, and then uses five case examples of public CMA advocacy activity to illustrate various aspects of the use of its powers, in relation to energy, education, transport and public information policy. It highlights the importance of bringing to bear knowledge based on casework, of understanding the political context, of matching the scale and nature of intervention to both the importance of the issue and the prospects of success, of persistence and timing of advice, and of choosing whether to advise publicly or privately on the prospects for influence. It also comments on the CMA’s assessment of the impact of this work.