Competition and Regulation in the Gas Industry: An Evaluation of the MMC Report on Gas in the UK

Following the referral of British Gas plc. (BG) to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission (MMC) in July 1992, the MMC spent one year on a wide-ranging enquiry into the UK gas industry and has written two separate but related reports: one under the 1973 Fair Trading Act, the other under the 1986 Gas Act. The arguments of the interested parties in this enquiry were largely kept out of the public arena, until the summary and conclusion of the MMC reports were published on 17 August 1993. A further two volumes with supporting factual anaIysis and an account of views submitted are yet to be published, and were not available at the time of writing this evaluation.

By: M. Stoppard