The Scottish Government’s consultation to establish a consumer body for Scotland - Which? response

Which? welcomes the opportunity to respond to the Scottish Government’s proposal to establish a consumer body for Scotland. This follows on from our previous contribution to the Working Group on Consumer and Competition Policy in Scotland.

We broadly welcome the proposal to establish a new body with a clear focus on investigating issues and proposing solutions solely from a consumer perspective, along with a wider duty on public authorities to consider the impacts on consumers of their policies or decisions.

The governance of Consumers Scotland and the relationship that the new body has with other parts of the consumer landscape needs to be clearly defined as they will determine its success, ensuring that it is a strong advocate for consumers and not merely another body in a landscape that is already complex.

We welcome the Scottish Government’s commitment to advance consumer interests within Scottish policy-making. This follows the devolution of powers in relation to consumer advocacy and advice in the Scotland Act 2016, as well as provision to allocate levy funds from the energy and postal sectors to fund consumer advocacy and advice and the power, in certain circumstances, to refer a market for investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).