Not surprisingly Andrew Turner and his office needed to read through and digest the 90+ pages on the OFT interim report we covered on Friday.
Rather than being off at the Festival like many people, they were spending their weekend pouring over the reports minutia.
Below are his comments that have just been released …
“I would like to thank the OFT for the work they have done so far. They have accepted my arguments on most of the important points but say that they are ‘minded’ not to take further action. Although they have identified clear concerns about price, quality, choice and innovation they say they have found only ‘limited evidence’ that this has damaged consumers. They are also clearly having trouble finding a suitable remedy to address the problems they have identified.
“I am certainly not giving up on trying to secure a full investigation. I will be meeting the OFT to discuss what information they would need in order to change their provisional findings.
“This report certainly does not give the ferry operators a clean bill of health – far from it. Instead it puts them on notice that there needs to be changes in the way they operate. They have recommended that the ferry operators should provide greater transparency on pricing and service standards. I welcome that. Currently the ferry companies hold all the information, so it is very difficult to challenge them. That was certainly one of the problems I encountered in preparing my case. We need to discuss what can be done to make the operators work harder to deliver value for money services whether there is eventually a full investigation or not.
“The OFT have pointedly not commented on whether a ‘yield management’ pricing strategy is appropriate for a lifeline service. I will be pressing them to come to a view on this.”
Andrew Turner concluded with …
“I am perplexed that the OFT have decided it is ‘too early’ to take a view on whether the high prices paid for the ferry companies in recent years will lead to long-term damage to the consumer.
“I am afraid that is avoiding the issue. My constituents are clearly suffering now and have been for a number of years – I am not sure how long the OFT think that should continue before they will act. That is something I will be following up on.”
More details shortly
