As I said last week, I have been travelling with the BEIS Select Committee and what an extraordinary set of meetings they have been. The visits were associated to the work we are doing on State Aid and Post-Brexit Competition Policy. This is the third strand of the overarching Post Pandemic Economic Growth inquiry and focuses on the new landscape for regulation and competition in the UK following its departure from the European Union.
The inquiry focuses on three main themes. First, we considered whether the Subsidy Control Bill will provide a sufficiently strong and fair framework to enable public bodies to subsidise businesses. The second theme, and current focus, was to examine Government proposals for reform to competition regulations with regards to mergers and acquisitions, and, in particular, the role played by the UK’s independent Competition & Markets Authority (CMA).The third theme focuses on the CMA’s role in ensuring fair, healthy competition between global tech companies in the UK’s digital markets, as well as probing how the CMA’s new, internal Digital Markets Unit could reform regulation so that it sits cohesively with those of other countries, while promoting competition and protecting customer data.
This visit saw us travel on Sunday to San Francisco ready for meetings on Monday and Tuesday with the HM Consular General and his team before meetings with Apple, Google X and Meta (the owners of Facebook) and then the US DOJ (Department of Justice) and some relatively smaller tech companies. The big 3 could not have presented themselves more differently. Apple was a very clinical environment, like their shops, in a building built like a large polo mint that was a mile round. Google X started with their lead arriving on roller blades and a very informal discussion of their plans. Meta was like a university campus, including games rooms etc. One of the other businesses we met was Starship Technologies who deal in automated last mile deliveries and are already present in the UK in Milton Keynes.
On Tuesday evening we flew to Washington and met, on Wednesday, with other companies, some of whom were concerned by the dominance of the big three, before meeting the Federal Trade Commission, the Director General of the Competition Law Centre, the US Chamber of Commerce, the Antitrust division of the DOJ, the Coalition for App Fairness and a round table on Investment Security. On Thursday we met the British Ambassador and her team, followed by meetings with Senators, Congressmen and Representatives of the Joint Economic Committee before getting the train to New York. On Friday we met the Counsellor from the General Assembly and Human Rights, the Office of the Secretary General Envoy on Technology and the Special Advisor to the Secretary General on Climate Change. We then concluded our meetings with a Business Round Table before the programme ended and we departed.
These visits enabled us to get all perspectives on consideration as to where UK legislation should best sit post Brexit. It was an incredibly informative trip with a very full agenda and will help enormously when we develop our opinions on where the Government intends to position the UK in the legislative space between Europe and the USA.
Parliament has a recess until 19 April so I will be around more if anyone wants to catch up and we have just scheduled our next series of surgeries at Wheatley Hill and Mainsforth on Friday 22nd April and Woodham and Sadberge on Saturday 23rd April. Surgeries are opportunities for people to discuss issues you want us to pick up on or if you just want to talk, either positively or negatively about what Government is up to, that’s fine too. Just get in touch with the constituency office to schedule an appointment.
If you want to catch up with me on anything, please email paul.howell.mp@parliament.uk
Stay Safe
Paul Howell, Member of Parliament for Sedgefield