United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020

36 Report on request on provision considered to have detrimental effects

(1) The CMA may, at the request of a relevant national authority, provide a report to the authority on the economic impact of a regulatory provision passed or made after the day on which this section comes into force, where—

(a) the regulatory provision falls within the scope of this Part, and

(b) the requesting authority considers that the operation of the regulatory provision is, or may come to be, detrimental to the effective operation of the internal market in the United Kingdom.

(2) The CMA’s function under subsection (1) is exercisable regardless of whether or not a relevant national authority has exercised the power under section 34(1) in relation to the regulatory provision in question.

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

(4) Subsections (1) to (3) apply in relation to the making of a request by two or more relevant national authorities acting jointly as they apply in relation to the making of a request by a single relevant national authority.

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

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

(a) give the requesting authority (or each of them simultaneously, if more than one) a notice of its reasons for doing so, and

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

(7) Where the CMA provides a report under subsection (1)—

(a) it must provide a copy of the report to each relevant national authority who did not request the report, and

(b) the provision of the report to the requesting authority (or each requesting authority) and each recipient mentioned in paragraph (a) must be simultaneous.

(8) As soon as reasonably practicable after the condition in subsection (9) has been met, but in any case no later than the end of the period of 6 months beginning with the day on which the CMA complies with subsection (7), the CMA must arrange for a copy of the report to be laid before—

(a) each House of Parliament,

(b) the Scottish Parliament,

(c) Senedd Cymru, and

(d) the Northern Ireland Assembly.

(9) The condition mentioned in subsection (8) is that each relevant national authority has notified the CMA that it does not require any further time for private consideration of the report provided or copied to it under this section.

(10) The CMA must publish the report in such manner as it considers appropriate, but may not do so until it has made the arrangements mentioned in subsection (8) and the report has been laid in accordance with one or more of paragraphs (a) to (d) of that subsection.