UK’S top regulator unveils sweeping Scottish expansion

● Recruitment drive will see headcount leap as post-brexit workload intensifies

Competition and Markets Authority today unveiled a step-change in its Scottish presence with a major recruitment drive, partly to handle a looming extra regulatory workload post-brexit.

CMA chief executive Andrea Coscelli will confirm following a board meeting in Edinburgh today that the UK’S competition regulator is to grow its capital contingent to about 25-30 employees from three people now.

Coscelli said the organisation already had plans to expand the Scottish headcount to about ten or so “to truly promote competition and ensure consumers get a fair deal right across the UK”.

However, the CMA said: “The expansion will also be a big part of the organisation’s preparation for Brexit. This is expected to increase [our] merger reviews and investigations into cartels and other anti-competitive behaviours as work previously led from Brussels comes to the UK.”

Coscelli added that “as we prepare to leave the EU, it has never been more important for the UK’S competition authority to grow its talent base”.

He said it made sense for the CMA “to have a second hub”, and Edinburgh was an obvious choice given the many institutions and key stakeholders based there to help the regulator’s “delivery”.

Keith Brown, economy secretary for the Scottish Government, who met the CMA board yesterday, hailed the move as “a clear sign of its commitment to taking action and making the market fair for consumers and businesses”.

Coscelli said he expected about ten of the new staff to relocate from London to Edinburgh, but that its recruitment in Scotland would range from graduates “to senior people”, including lawyers and civil servants.

He added that following Brexit: “the number one risk is not to have the talent we need to take on global internationthe al cases.” The CMA chief cited major fines recently made by Brussels on business giants such as Google and chipmaker Qualcomm totalling between hundreds of millions and more than £1 billion for competition breaches.

“These are big global cases that we for more than 20 years have outsourced to the EU. This is now going to end.” Coscelli said it was likely the UK’S share of any similar fines in future would easily cover the costs of expansion.

It is understood that the CMA, based in Edinburgh’s Melville Street but shortly to move, believes if there was a big Scottish merger or other anti-competitive probe it would be sensible to run it from Scotland.

But the expanded team will also be involved in UK nationwide cases, and competition lawyers, heavily concentrated in London, could also be drafted in to form an integrated unit where necessary.

Coscelli added: “Brexit is creating a lot of urgency for us with expansion. What we might have done in three to five years we will do in 18 to 24 months.”