It is because the responsibilities are different. They might all rest within different parts of the CMA, but the responsibilities under the internal market Act are different to those under the Subsidy Control Bill that we are debating today. The policing of the Act is of course the responsibility of the UK Government; it is a reserved responsibility, but the same right to challenge a decision exists for the Secretary of State as it does for the devolved Administrations. Using the ability to refer a decision to the subsidy advice unit, we are saying that we will take a request from a public authority or devolved Administration very seriously under the Secretary of State’s call-in powers, but, in addition to that, we are currently in discussions with the devolved Administrations to see
whether it is possible to reach an agreement on some sort of codifying mechanism to refer decisions to the subsidy advice unit.
We hope that no UK government subsidies would require referral, but I can tell the Committee that Ministers will be open-minded to calling in a UK government subsidy for SAU scrutiny where that is requested by another public authority or considered desirable for other reasons.
To respond to the concerns of the noble Baroness, Lady Blake, the Secretary of State would always take into account any urgent circumstances, whether in considering the use of the call-in powers or in the exemption from mandatory referral for subsidies of particular interest set out in Clause 64.
7.15 pm
To address the point raised by the noble Lord, Lord Bruce, I emphasise that the devolved Administrations—a point I made earlier—and other public authorities may indeed bring challenges against the UK Government in the Competition Appeal Tribunal where they feel the interests of people in the areas in which they exercise their responsibilities may have been adversely affected by the granting of a subsidy. I re-emphasise that we are continuing to work with the DAs as the Bill progresses through Parliament and beyond. This includes close co-operation on any ongoing subsidy cases. I reassure the noble Lord that we are trying to codify their ability to request the use of the call-in powers where appropriate. As always, this close working will continue as we move towards implementation and once the new regime is up and running.
A further reason for reserving the call-in power to the Secretary of State is to ensure that the subsidy advice unit is neither overstretched nor enlarged beyond the appropriate level for its role in this regime.