Evaluation - completed work

All the reports below can be downloaded from the Evaluating the OFT's Work publications page.

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2012

• Evaluating the impact of the 2004 OFT study into doorstep selling (pdf 1.7Mb) and annexes (pdf 671kb)
  An independent evaluation of the impact of the OFT's 2004 market study into legitimate doorstep selling.

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2011

• Assessing the Impact of Competition Intervention on Compliance and Deterrence (pdf 1.9Mb) An independent piece of research providing a qualitative and quantitative assessment of compliance with competition law and deterrence from competition enforcement.
• An evaluation of the impact of the OFT's consumer enforcement case against Foxtons (pdf 543kb), and a report on survey findings by IFF research (pdf 1Mb)
• Positive Impact 2010-11 (July 2011) (pdf 289kb)
  Annual estimates of direct financial benefits to consumers from OFT's work on competition enforcement, consumer protection, mergers and markets work over the period 2008-11.
• Evaluating the impact of the 2005 OFT study into care homes for older people (pdf 2.72Mb) and annexes (pdf 560kb)
  An independent evaluation of the impact of the OFT's 2005 market study into care homes for older people. 
• Evaluating the financial benefits for consumers of consumer education and awareness campaigns Just tick it and Skilled to go (pdf 396kb)
  The Central Office of Information conducted an evaluation of OFT's Skilled to go consumer education programme, together with OFT's Just tick it marketing campaign. Their report explores the return on investment of these initiatives.

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2010

• Positive Impact 2009/10
  A report providing the annual estimates for direct financial benefits to consumers from OFT's work on competition enforcement, consumer protection, mergers and markets work over the period 2007-10.
• A guide to OFT's impact estimation methods (oft1250)
  A report presenting a consolidated guide of our approach to impact estimation.
• A review of the OFT's impact estimation methods (oft1164)
  An independent review of the OFT's impact estimation methodologies that assesses the assumptions and methods used and suggests possible modifications.
• Consumer Codes Approval Scheme: evaluating consumer experiences (oft1247)
  An independent evaluation, drawing primarily on consumer surveys, of the impact on consumers of three codes at different stage of development within the Consumer Codes Approval Scheme (CCAS).
• Evaluation of the impact of the OFT's investigation into bid rigging in the construction industry (oft1240)
  An independent evaluation, based on constructor and procurer surveys, of the impact on awareness and behaviour of recent OFT enforcement activities in the construction sector.
• Evaluation of OFT competition advocacy (oft866)
  An independent evaluation that draws on a survey of government officials and three case studies to highlight the impact of advocacy interventions.
• Evaluating the impact of the 2003 OFT study on the control of entry regulations in the retail pharmacies market (oft1219)
  An independent evaluation of the impact of the 2005 partial liberalisation of the retail pharmacy sector introduced following the 2003 OFT market study on control of entry regulations in the sector.
• Monitoring the internet shopping market study (oft1153)
  A report analysing findings from omnibus surveys and two websweep exercises (in December 2007 and March 2009) to explore market developments since the 2007 Internet Shopping market study and follow up activities.
• Factors affecting compliance with consumer law and the role of deterrence
  A report providing an independent quantitative assessment of the factors affecting compliance with consumer law, and useful insights on the deterrent role of enforcement. For more information, see Drivers of compliance with consumer law.

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2009

• Positive Impact 08/09 (oft1102)
  A report providing the annual estimates for direct financial benefits to consumers from OFT's work on competition enforcement, consumer protection, mergers and markets work over the period 2006-09.
• Evaluation of six consumer enforcement cases (oft1139)
• An independent evaluation of the impact of a sample of six consumer enforcement cases, exploring their effectiveness and how to enhance the impact of future interventions.
• Consumer Credit interventions evaluation (oft1091)
  An independent evaluation of a cross section of OFT interventions in the credit market in recent years.
• Review of merger decisions under the Enterprise Act 2002 (oft1073)
  An independent review, with hindsight and in the light of subsequent market developments, of merger decisions under the Enterprise Act 2002, commenting on the approach to decisions.
• Trading Standards impact report (oft1085)
  An independent evaluation estimating the consumer savings that are delivered by the fair trading work of local authority Trading Standards Services across the UK.
• Findings from consumer surveys on internet shopping (oft1079)
  An report comparing the findings from 2009 telephone and online consumer omnibus surveys to those of the original surveys conducted as part of the OFT's Internet Shopping Market Study.
• Evidence on consumer confidence
  A report focusing on the evidence available on consumer confidence, building on both research on wider indicators and OFT evaluations on the effects of specific OFT activities.

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2008

• Positive Impact 07/08 (oft1007)
  A report providing the annual estimates for direct financial benefits to consumers from OFT's work on competition enforcement, scam busting, mergers and markets work over the period 2005-08.
• OFT response to points raised during the consultation on its approach to calculating benefits (oft955a)
  A document providing the OFT response to points raised by stakeholders following the release of our document outlining the 'Approach to calculating direct benefits to consumers'.
• Approach to calculating direct benefits to consumers (oft955)
  A document describing the OFT approach to measuring performance against its target to deliver direct financial benefits to consumers of at least five times that of its cost to the taxpayer across the period covered by the Comprehensive Spending Review 2007-11.
• Evaluating the impact of the Supply of Extended Warranties on Domestic Electrical Goods Order 2005 (oft1024)
  An independent evaluation, drawing on interviews, consumer surveys and a mystery shopping exercise, of changes to the extended warranties market after the 2005 Order (that followed an OFT market study and Competition Commission enquiry).
• An evaluation of the impact upon productivity of ending resale price maintenance on books (oft981)
  An independent report examining how the ending of resale price maintenance on books affected productivity in book publishing and retailing.
• Evaluation of the Save Xmas awareness campaign (oft1029)
  An independent assessment of the delivery of the Save Xmas campaign, exploring trainers' and end users' perceptions and its potential impact and benefits.

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2007

• Positive Impact 06/07 (oft928)
  A report providing annual estimates for direct financial benefits to consumers form OFT's work on competition enforcement, mergers and scam busting work for the period 2004-07.
• Consumer savings from mergers control (oft917)
  A document explaining the use of merger simulation for estimating the impact of our mergers work.
• Evaluating the impact of the 2003 taxis market study (oft956)
  An independent evaluation of the impact of recommendations arising from the 2003 market study on regulatory framework for licensed taxis and private hire vehicles in the UK.
• Usage and efficiency of the CD database for TSS (oft871)
  An independent report providing an overview and case studies of how the Consumer Direct database is currently used by Local Authority Trading Standards Services.
• The deterrent effect of competition enforcement by the OFT - summary of comments to discussion document (oft963a)
  A summary of the responses to 'The deterrent effect of competition enforcement by the OFT - discussion document'.
• The deterrent effect of competition enforcement by the OFT - discussion document (oft963)
  An OFT discussion document seeking views on the key findings and policy issues arising from the report on 'The deterrent effect of competition enforcement by the OFT'.
• The deterrent effect of competition enforcement by the OFT (oft962)
  An independent piece of research, based on surveys of competition practitioners and companies and in-depth interviews, providing useful quantitative and qualitative insight on the deterrent effect of competition enforcement.

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2006

• Evaluating the impact of the new car warranties market study (oft852)
  An independent evaluation of the impact of the 2003 market study on new car warranties and subsequent actions taken by the OFT in the market for automotive servicing and repair.
• Evaluation of Enterprise Act training for Trading Standard Services (oft549)
  An independent evaluation, based on survey and interview work, of the training of Local Authority Trading Standard Services in Part 8 of the Enterprise Act.
• Review of the impact on business of the Consumer Codes Approval Scheme (oft870)
  An independent report on the impact on business of the Consumer Codes Approval Scheme, focusing on awareness of the scheme among businesses, benefits and costs to member businesses and code sponsors.
• OFT's comments to 'Review of the impact on business of the Consumer Codes Approval Scheme' (oft870a)
  An accompanying note to the publication of the 'Review of the impact on business of the Consumer Codes Approval Scheme', providing further detail on the motivation and implications of this piece of research.
• Evaluation strategy for market studies (oft862)
  A document defining the criteria that OFT will use for deciding which studies to evaluate and how the OFT will embed evaluation in market studies through the definition of success criteria and monitoring arrangements.

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2005

• Positive Impact 2005 (oft827)
  A report estimating the consumer savings generated by a subsection of our competition enforcement work in the period 2000 - 2005.
• Ex post analysis of mergers referred to the Competition Commission
  An independent report evaluating mergers referred by the OFT to the Competition Commission and subsequently cleared without remedy, focusing on ten cases, and identifying lessons for future merger decisions. Download Ex post evaluation of mergers from the Competition Commission website.

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2002

• The development of targets for consumer savings arising from competition policy (oft3861)
  An economic discussion paper exploring the setting of consumer savings targets for the OFT and how they can be measured.

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