OFT Annual Report charts a year of 'radical change and important achievements'

103/07 23 July 2007

The OFT Annual Report published today reflects on the key achievements made by the OFT in the past year as well as setting out new performance targets for the future.

Download the Executive Summary (pdf 783 kb).

Download the Annual Report (pdf 1.2 mb).

Highlights from the past year include:

Credit card default charges - UK credit card issuers substantially reduced their default charges on credit cards in response to action taken by the OFT.
Market studies - the OFT considered a number of important, topical and complex issues in its studies ranging from UK airports and UK internet shopping to the pricing of pharmaceuticals. The results of these studies included the referral of the markets for groceries, payment protection insurance and airport services supplied by BAA to the Competition Commission (CC) for further investigation, and recommendations to government for the reform of the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme.
Savings to consumers - OFT merger investigations have saved consumers an estimated £52m through undertakings in lieu of reference, and published CC decisions for 2006-07. In addition to this, enforcement action leading to infringement decisions under the Competition Act have saved consumers an estimated £64m.
Cartels - following an OFT investigation into collusive tendering by construction companies in England, the OFT uncovered evidence of bid-rigging in thousands of tenders with a combined estimated value approaching £3bn.
Consumer Direct - in the OFT's first year of managing Consumer Direct, the service received over 1.7 million calls and emails from consumers and the service has begun to influence consumer behaviour, making them more confident in dealing with suppliers of goods and services.

Looking forward, the new performance targets for the OFT will focus more on outcomes, such as changing the way consumers, businesses and government behave. In addition the OFT will commit to delivering direct financial benefits to consumers of at least five times the cost of the OFT annual budget to the taxpayer.

The new targets and objectives promise to deliver measurable benefits to UK consumers across four broad themes: delivering high-impact outcomes, being a centre of excellence and intelligence, working in partnership, and building on the OFT's internal capability.

Philip Collins, OFT Chairman, said:

'The past year has been a period of change and development, marked by a number of important achievements. We have delivered significant benefits to consumers, business and the economy. At the same time, we have embarked on a programme of radical change inside our organisation, designed to increase those benefits over the coming years by allowing us to assess market failure and unlawful activity in a more holistic way. Our new performance targets and objectives are challenging but deliverable so that consumers, business and the economy will derive enhanced benefit from our work.'

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