Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the Cabinet Office will be providing evidence on Microsoft licensing practices and other related matters to the Competition and Markets Authority for its Strategic Market Status investigation into Microsoft’s business software ecosystem.
Answered by Lord Leong - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade)
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is responsible for gathering evidence relevant to its Strategic Market Status investigations and engages with a wide range of stakeholders. Government departments will assist the CMA as far as possible where the CMA requests that they do so, including providing evidence to the CMA where appropriate.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Competition and Markets Authority’s Strategic Market Status investigation into Microsoft’s business software ecosystem, what assessment they have made of (1) the extent to which software licensing restrictions and cloud lock-in may influence public sector choice of enterprise AI tools, and (2) any implications for competition and value for money.
Answered by Lord Leong - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade)
The CMA expects to publish its final decision report on the Strategic Market Status investigation into Microsoft’s business software by February 2027. The CMA has already taken action in the cloud market outside of the investigation and secured voluntary commitments from Amazon and Microsoft, which will improve interoperability, reduce data egress fees and make switching easier in cloud services.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will advise the Competition and Markets Authority to publish a public roadmap for the Strategic Market Status investigation into Microsoft’s business software ecosystem; and what steps they are taking to ensure that the investigation is delivered at pace.
Answered by Lord Leong - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade)
The Competition and Markets Authority is responsible for operating the digital markets regime. The length of Strategic Market Status investigations can vary due to a number of factors but must be completed within the statutory time limits imposed by the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2025. The CMA has stated its intention to publish a roadmap.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure the Competition and Markets Authority develops potential conduct requirements in parallel with the Strategic Market Status investigation, to ensure remedies for anti-competitive licensing are implemented immediately upon any designation.
Answered by Lord Leong - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade)
The Competition and Markets Authority is responsible for operating the digital markets regime, including when to implement any conduct requirements. The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 does not prevent the CMA from designing remedies in parallel with Strategic Market Status investigations.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure the Competition and Markets Authority delivers the outcomes recommended in the cloud services market investigation.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is an independent competition authority, and decisions on implementing the recommendations from the cloud services market investigation rest with its Board. The Government has provided the CMA with bespoke powers to remedy competition problems in digital markets.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the risks of over-reliance on dominant cloud services providers, as identified in the Competition and Markets Authority's cloud services market investigation; and what steps they are taking to mitigate those risks.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government has not carried out an assessment of the risks of over-reliance on dominant cloud service providers in the market. The Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) cloud services market investigation examined the state of competition in the market. The CMA is independent of Government and any decisions on initiating strategic market status investigations are for the CMA Board.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government, with regard to the recommendations of the cloud services market investigation, published on 5 October 2023, what steps they are taking to ensure the initiation of strategic market status investigations for Amazon Web Services and Microsoft.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
In July 2025, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published its final report on the UK cloud market. The key recommendation was for the CMA Board to prioritise commencing investigations under the digital markets regime and to consider designating the two largest providers —Microsoft and AWS — with strategic market status in relation to cloud services. The CMA is independent of Government and any decisions on initiating strategic market status investigations are for the CMA Board.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the Competition and Markets Authority accelerates the Digital Markets Unit's strategic market status designation for cloud services.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has indicated in its provisional Cloud Services report that it will recommend to its Board prioritising Strategic Market Status (SMS) investigations into Amazon Web Services and Microsoft. Decisions on which SMS investigations to launch are for the CMA, as the UK's independent competition authority. The Government will consider any additional recommendations made by the CMA in its final report, which is not expected until Summer 2025.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what actions they are taking to address restrictive software licensing practices by dominant cloud providers, as identified by the Competition and Markets Authority, to ensure fair competition in the cloud services market.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has indicated in its provisional Cloud Services report that it will recommend to its Board prioritising Strategic Market Status (SMS) investigations into Amazon Web Services and Microsoft. Decisions on which SMS investigations to launch are for the CMA, as the UK's independent competition authority. The Government will consider any additional recommendations made by the CMA in its final report, which is not expected until Summer 2025.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government why discussions have been held with major online marketplaces on how to tackle unsafe products, such as toys, being sold via third-party sellers in the UK.
Answered by Earl of Minto - Shadow Minister (Defence)
Ministers in this Department held a roundtable meeting with a number of online marketplaces on 24th April, demanding they take more action to keep unsafe products off their platforms. In addition, through the Office for Product Safety and Standards, government speaks regularly and directly to online marketplaces to tackle the availability of non-compliant products sold online, requiring recalls and takedowns and, where necessary, taking enforcement action to prevent unsafe products from being made available to UK consumers.
Additionally, the Government will shortly publish a consultation on the Product Safety Review which makes proposals for a more agile approach to deal with the changing world of commerce including online sales.