Evaluation publications

Evaluations conducted or commissioned by the OFT are organised under the following catagories: Independent evaluation and research projects; Internal impact estimation and research; Evaluation strategy documents. 

Independent evaluation and research projects

Evaluating the impact of the Supply of Extended Warranties on Domestic Electrical Goods Order 2005
In October 2008 the OFT published an independent report evaluating the impact of the Supply of Extended Warranties on Domestic Electrical Goods Order 2005 

An evaluation of the impact upon productivity of ending resale price maintenance on books
In March 2008 the OFT published a report that examines how the ending of resale price maintenance (RPM) on books affected productivity in book publishing and retailing.

The deterrence effect of competition enforcement by the OFT
In November 2007 the OFT published an independent piece of research on the deterrent effect of competition enforcement, carried out by Deloitte.

Also in November 2007, the OFT published a discussion document on the issues raised by the report, seeking views by 1 February 2008.

In March 2008 the OFT published a summary of the responses to the discussion document.

Impact of 2003 taxis market study
In October 2007 the OFT published an independent evaluation of the impact of the taxis market study carried out by Europe Economics.

Usage and efficacy of the CD database for TSS
In February 2007 the OFT published an independent evaluation into the usage of the Consumer Direct database by Local Authority Trading Standards Services.

Consumer Codes Approval Scheme
In October 2006 the OFT published an independent evaluation of the impact on business of the Consumer Codes Approval Scheme (CCAS), carried out by the economics research consultancy Centre for Economics and Business Research Ltd with support from market research agency Opinion Research Business.

The aim of the CCAS is to safeguard or promote consumers' interests through the identification and approval of robust self-regulatory codes of practice that give consumers greater rights and protection than the minimum required by law.

See Approved codes of practice area of this website.

Evaluation of Enterprise Act training for Trading Standards Services
In December 2006 the OFT published an evaluation report prepared by IFF research on the training of Local Authority Trading Standards Services in Part 8 of the Enterprise Act.

Car warranties market study
In June 2006 the OFT published an independent evaluation of the impact of the new car warranties market study carried out by Europe Economics.

Ex-post analysis of mergers referred to the Competition Commission
In March 2005, PwC Economics published a report into the ex-post evaluation of mergers referred by the OFT to the Competition Commission (CC) and subsequently cleared without remedy. The report was jointly commissioned by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, the CC and the OFT. The report focuses on evidence of effective competition in ten separate cases and aims to see if there are any lessons that can be drawn that may guide future merger decisions.

Consumer savings targets: OFT economic discussion paper
In 2002 the OFT published a paper by Professor Steve Davies and Adrian Majumdar, discussing whether it would be sensible to set consumer savings targets for the OFT and, if they were set, how to measure them. The discussion of measurement underpins our recent impact evaluation work.

Internal impact estimation and research

Positive impact 07/08
In July 2008 we published the third Positive Impact document. In addition to areas covered by Positive Impact 06/07, it estimates impact of OFT's market studies work.

      Download Positive Impact 07/08 (pdf 226 kb)

Positive impact 06/07
In July 2007 we published the second Positive Impact document. In addition to updating the methodology used in Positive Impact 05 to give more accurate estimates of impact, it also covers the OFTs Scambuster work.

Consumer savings from merger control
We have developed an innovative method for estimating the impact of our merger control work, detailed in this April 2007 document.

Positive impact 05
In December 2005 we published the first Positive impact document. We applied internationally recognised methodologies, supplemented by recent academic literature, to estimate the consumer savings generated by a subsection of our competition enforcement work in the period 2000/01 - 2004/5.

Evaluation strategy documents

Evaluation strategy for the OFT's approach to calculating direct benefits to consumers
The OFT has agreed with HM Treasury a performance framework which includes a target to provide, in each annual report, quantitative evidence of how the OFT delivers direct financial benefits to consumers of at least five times that of its cost to the taxpayer across the spending review period. In this March 2008 document we describe the OFT approach to measuring performance against this target.

Evaluation strategy for market studies
The OFT is committed to evaluate how effectively it fulfils its mission. In September 2006 the OFT published a document outlining the strategy for evaluating OFT market studies work.
 
The OFT is committed in its annual plan to commission an independent evaluation of the impact of at least one market study each year. The strategy defines the criteria the OFT will use for deciding which studies to evaluate. It also describes how the OFT will embed evaluation in market studies through the definition of success criteria and monitoring arrangements for the market studies published after April 2007.




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Advice and resources

See also

On this site...

  • OFT telephone enquiries:08457 22 44 99
  • Consumer Direct telephone enquiries:08454 04 05 06