Our monitoring framework needs to be agile and responsive. Our information gathering and reporting therefore involves a mixture of reporting to regular milestones and ad hoc activity.
We review the information received from the market operator on a monthly basis, taking action if appropriate. We supplement this information with evidence from retailers, third party intermediaries and a customer insight survey on an annual basis. We committed to publishing a high level ‘state of the market’ report on an annual basis to maintain confidence in the market.
In addition, we currently plan an in-depth review into the functioning of the market within five years of its opening to take stock and ensure that we are in a good position to prevent any issues from becoming entrenched, undermining confidence in the market and our ability to address them. If we identify such concerns, this may lead us to use our competition law tools such as a market referral to the CMA.
We can also request additional information from market participants in between the annual information gathering exercises for example by using our targeted reviews to investigate a particular area of concern. These reviews may lead to enforcement activity and may also be published.
We are also committed to engaging with the market regularly in a less formal way. We are currently developing tools that would allow us to share information with our stakeholders without the requirements of formal information provision.