New head for Competition Commission

Wednesday, 14 July 2004 12:00 AM

Martin Stanley, currently chief executive of Postcomm, has been appointed as the new chief executive of the Competition Commission.

Mr Stanley will take up the post in early October on a five-year contract worth £120,000 a year and be in charge of the day to day running of the Commission.

Prior to his leadership of Postcomm Mr Stanley has held a number of senior positions in the Department for Trade and Industry, the Cabinet Office and the Inland Revenue, including director of the Regulatory Impact Unit in the Cabinet Office.

Consumer Minister Gerry Sutcliffe said: "Martin will be a very able successor to Robert Foster when he retires in September."

"This will be important at a time when the Commission faces new responsibilities and a greater workload under the Enterprise Act."

The Competition Commission was set up in 1999 as a replacement for the Monopolies and Mergers Commission. It is responsible for investigating mergers and markets when another competition body, normally the Office of Fair Trading, refers a case to it.

The Enterprise Act 2003 has given it significantly more responsibility, making it responsible for making decisions and implementing changes, whereas previously its role had been limited to making recommendations to the Government.

Professor Paul Geroski, chairman of the Competition Commission welcomed the appointment, saying: "We've come through a period of great change recently, having come to terms with our new responsibilities under the Enterprise Act, and we now start the next chapter. Martin's arrival, along with other recent appointments, means that we will soon have in place a new senior team with a wide range of expertise in different fields to meet these challenges and continue our progress towards becoming a world class competition authority."

The chairman of Postcomm, Nigel Stapleton, said he was "disappointed" to see Mr Stanley leave. Mr Stapleton said that the board was determined that whoever replaced him "will ensure that Postcomm's culture and values are maintained so that we can build on the work we have started and achieve Postcomm's stated aims and objectives."

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