United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020

35 Provision of report on request after regulatory provision is passed or made

(1) The CMA may, at the request of a relevant national authority, provide a report to the authority on the impact on the effective operation of the internal market in the United Kingdom of a regulatory provision specified in the request which—

(a) is passed or made after the day on which this section comes into force,

(b) falls within the scope of this Part, and

(c) applies to the relevant part of the United Kingdom and is within relevant competence.

(2) A relevant national authority may not request a report from the CMA under subsection (1) unless the authority has considered whether any other person or body is qualified to provide an independent report on the matter.

(3) Subsections (1) and (2) apply in relation to two or more relevant national authorities acting jointly as those subsections apply in relation to a single relevant national authority.

(4) A request under subsection (1) must set out the reasons for making it.

(5) If the CMA declines to provide a report requested under subsection (1) it must—

(a) give the requesting authority a notice of its reasons for doing so, and

(b) publish the notice in such manner as it considers appropriate.

(6) Where the CMA provides a report under this section—

(a) if the report was requested by two or more relevant national authorities acting jointly, the CMA must provide the report to each of them simultaneously;

(b) the CMA must, as soon as reasonably practicable after complying with paragraph (a), publish the report in such manner as it considers appropriate.

(7) In this section “the relevant part of the United Kingdom” means—

(a) in the application of this section to a relevant national authority who is the Scottish Ministers, Scotland;

(b) in the application of this section to a relevant national authority who is the Welsh Ministers, Wales;

(c) in the application of this section to a relevant national authority who is a Northern Ireland department, Northern Ireland;

(d) in the application of this section to a relevant national authority who is the Secretary of State, any part of the United Kingdom.