GovWire

The annual report and accounts give a summary of the Competition and Markets Authoritys performance for the period 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023, highlighting our key achievements. Our new strategy, published earlier this year, will form the basis of our annual reports going forward and has already been shaping our work during the later stages of the 2022 to 2023 reporting period.

Highlights include:

• For every 1 we spent on our operating costs, the average financial benefit to customers over the last three years was 26. This is significantly above the 10 target set by the UK Government. Over the three-year period from 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2023, the estimated direct financial benefit to consumers from the CMAs work was 8 billion.
• Launching our new medium-term strategy and priorities for promoting competitive markets and tackling unfair behaviour.
• Protecting people, businesses and the UK economy by, for example, progressing work in response to the rising cost of living. This included launching a project to consider supermarket food pricing, conducting a market study of the road fuel market and launching a market study into homebuilding. We also imposed millions of pounds of fines on construction firms for breaches of competition law during this period.
• Launching the Subsidy Advice Unit and further establishing the Office for the Internal Market, which is now supporting the successful functioning of the internal market and advising public authorities on their assessments of subsidies. We are also continuing to operationalise the Digital Markets Unit and preparing to assume new powers under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill, introduced to Parliament in April 2023, which is set to provide the CMA with the powers needed to operate a statutory pro-competition regime for digital markets.

The CMA has also published itsimpact assessment for 2022 to 2023 , from which the figures for financial benefits to consumers are derived.