To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform if he will ask the Serious Fraud Office to investigate allegations of the abuse of market share of (a) brewing companies and (b) leisure companies with large managed and tenanted public house property portfolios. (150721)

Ensuring that markets operate freely and fairly is a matter for the independent competition authorities, rather than for Government. The UK competition framework has established the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) as an independent statutory body which is responsible for ensuring that markets operate competitively. The OFT has the powers to investigate and take action if companies are abusing a dominant position in a market or behaving anti-competitively.