No chilling effect

Watchdog chief embraces new focus on growth

- John Collingridge

Signs by the lifts in the Competition and Markets Authority's Canary Wharf headquarters remind staff not to talk about their work in public, given the billions of pounds resting on its decisions. But a very public debate is taking place about how the watchdog works and is run, with the government determined to make an example of it.

In October, the prime minister rebuked regulators in front of global business leaders for "needlessly holding back the investment we need to take our country forward". In January, they were hauled in to No 10 to explain how they would support the government's growth ambitions. Then days later the government defenestrated the CMA's chair Marcus Bokkerink, replacing him with the former head of Amazon in the UK, Doug Gurr.

Two and a bit years since she became chief executive of the watchdog, Sarah Cardell and her organisation are under scrutiny like never before. Britain's chief trustbuster is sitting in a meeting room at the CMA's head office after a whirlwind morning of broadcast interviews about its latest intervention, this time in the market for baby milk formula.

It demanded changes such as standardised packaging in hospitals and allowing shoppers to use loyalty cards to buy formula milk - changes that it said could help parents save £300 a year by switching to lower priced brands.

It is an illustration of the breadth of responsibility the watchdog has: from trying to police the tech juggernauts of Silicon Valley, to intervening in the price of baby milk. "This job is for me a particularly unique opportunity to really deliver a tangible impact for people. We can be talking about tech and then we can talk about baby formula," says Cardell. "It's a market that really, really matters for parents."