Competition law
The Competition and Markets Authority enforces competition law on behalf of the public. It merged the Office of Fair Trading with the Competition Commission after the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 Part 3. Consumer welfare and the public interest are the main objective of competition law, including industrial policy, regional development, protection of the environment and the running of public services. Competition law is closely connected with law on deregulation of access to markets, state aids and subsidies, the privatisation of state owned assets and the establishment of independent sector regulators. Specific "watchdog" agencies such as Ofgem, Ofcom and Ofwat are charged with seeing how the operation of those specific markets work. The OFT and the Competition Commission's work is generally confined to the rest.