I think all speakers in these debates ought to get them. Unless, of course, it is a very private letter to the noble Lord, Lord Purvis—in which case we will leave that between the two of them—all noble Lords should see all the letters that arise from these debates.
When I started thinking about this group, I thought that there were two divergent views, but they are not as divergent as I thought. It looked as if some amendments wanted the OIM, which is an observatory rather than an office, to be almost part of BEIS, with little independence. Our view is to the contrary. Amendment 113 in my name, which is obviously probing, signals that the CMA should not be advising the department but using its powers to intervene as necessary. That did not mean that it should not send messages to the Secretary of State, as the noble Lord, Lord Tyrie, did when, as its chair, he sought more powers for the CMA to intervene. He wanted a proper consumer
duty adding to it. The amendment does not say that it should not advise the department but makes the point that it should not be subservient to it.
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What we really wanted to emphasise—and here I feel the similarity with what everyone who has spoken has said—was that the CMA should not be subservient, which was the word used by the noble Lord, Lord Naseby. He said that the OIM should not be subservient to the CMA, but we also feel that it should not be subservient to BEIS, especially given that it is really important that the new Office for the Internal Market will not be beholden to any one of the four Governments. That is what is really important: there are four Governments trying to make this invigorated internal market work, not just one of the four Governments. In particular, although I agree with quite a lot of what the noble Baroness, Lady Neville-Rolfe, said, her suggestion that it was akin to—I think she said—the Intellectual Property Office is not right, because that does not have this very strong pull towards the other three Governments, whereas the OIM will have that. I can see why it looked as if it might fit in that model, but I do not think it is right, given that this has a four-nation remit.
My Amendment 155 would, in a sense, add in the consumer duty desired by the noble Lord, Lord Tyrie, into the CMA’s guiding principles. In truth, it is hard not to think—and I think it was the noble Baroness, Lady Neville-Rolfe, who said that the CMA was about consumer representation; I beg her pardon if it was not—that this is about consumer protection, but interestingly enough that is not written into its overarching objectives. I do not think there is much between us on that.
We will come to the exact status of the OIM in a later group with Amendment 115, in the name of my noble friend Lord Stevenson, but I agree with what the noble Baroness, Lady Neville-Rolfe, said that no case has been made for the OIM to be in the CMA. The noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, said there had been no consultation; it just sort of appeared. In fact, I share with her the view that it could disappear into the CMA’s back room. Even if our solution happens to be a different one, we share a diagnosis of that problem. We will discuss in a later group whether we want it to be outside of the CMA, but for now the important point that we are trying to signal is that the OIM should have some independence. We want to make sure that it is not in any way in hock to just one of the four Governments, who must work very closely together if we are to make this internal market work and thrive, as we all wish to see.