Annual report reveals OFT
delivering financial benefits of six times its cost
OFFICE OF FAIR
TRADING News Release (85/08) issued by The Government News Network
on 21 July 2008
The OFT has today
published its Annual Report 2007-08, alongside its Positive Impact
Report which shows that the OFT is saving consumers around £326m
per year.
The OFT has a target of delivering financial benefits to
consumers of at least five times its cost to the taxpayer.
Today's report reveals that the OFT has exceeded this, and is
currently delivering benefits of six times its annual budget to consumers.
A breakdown of the results are as follows :
* consumer savings from the OFT merger work are estimated at
£115m for the period 2007-08. This figure includes the OFT's
share of consumer savings from undertakings in lieu, abandoned
mergers and mergers blocked or amended,
* £122m was saved as a result of market investigation references,
reviews of orders and undertakings and recommendations from OFT
market studies being implemented during 2007/8,
* an average of £77m is being saved each year by the OFT's
work on enforcement of competition law, and
* a further £12m is saved per year by OFT actions to stop illegal
scams in the UK. These figures do not include an estimate of all
financial benefits derived from other aspects of OFT's work,
for example the deterrence effect of our competition enforcement
work, the impact of increased competition on productivity or the
increase in consumer confidence promoted by our actions.
Download a copy of the OFT Positive Impact Report at http://www.oft.gov.uk.
The Annual Report sets out in detail the achievements of the OFT
across many different business activities and markets in 2007-08.
The OFT worked successfully to protect competition and consumers
in areas ranging from airline pricing to racing tipster scams,
from overseas credit card transactions to medicine distribution,
and from internet shopping to Christmas savings schemes.
Download a copy of the OFT Annual Report at http://www.oft.gov.uk.
Philip Collins, OFT Chairman said:
'This has been a year of significant development at the OFT
as we have increasingly targeted our resources in areas where they
will deliver the biggest impact on the UK economy. Our unique
approach, combining both competition and consumer work, means that
we can consider markets as a whole and use a wide range of tools
where a market is not working well.
'We will continue to build on our successes, and will
prioritise our work and resources to focus on the most important
issues in making markets work well for consumers.'
NOTES
1. Financial benefits are defined as the monetary gain to
consumers as a result of intervention by the OFT. These are
estimated from a combination of case-specific evidence, knowledge
and analysis, economic simulation, and rules of thumb derived from
academic papers.
2. The OFT Annual Report and Resource Accounts 2007-08 (HC 836)
is available from TSO, PO Box 29, Norwich NR3 1GN. Tel: 0870 600
5522. Price: £18.55.
3. It was laid before Parliament at 11am on Monday 21 July 2008.
http://www.oft.gov.uk
PUBLIC enquiries: 0845 7224499 enquiries@oft.gov.uk
OFT
reports and consumer information leaflets are available free from: