Review of the effectiveness and impact of the UK’s Subsidy Control Act
The Competition and Markets Authority's (CMA) purpose is to help people, businesses and the UK economy by promoting competition and tackling unfair behaviour.
Details
The Subsidy Advice Unit (SAU) is now in its third year of operation after the UK’s subsidy control regime came into force in January 2023. Subsidies are given out by public authorities to support and pursue their policies – including to encourage economic growth by promoting innovation and investment.
We are required by law to review the effectiveness of the UK subsidy control regime. This covers all aspects including, but not limited to, guidance, the referral process, our own role in the SAU, the ability to challenge subsidies, as well as the thresholds and exemptions that apply.
After consulting last year on what to include, we plan to review the effectiveness of the subsidy control regime by assessing how well it is meeting the objectives set out by the UK Parliament.
These are:
empowering public authorities to design subsidies that deliver strong benefits for the UK taxpayer and deliver strategic interventions to support the UK’s economic growth and policy priorities
providing certainty and confidence to businesses investing in the UK
contributing to the UK’s international commitments on subsidy control
We’ll also be looking at the impact of the regime on competition and investment in the UK. This means looking at the sorts of subsidies given (and not given) and their impact on prices, market shares, entry and exit, location, output, investment decisions and customer behaviour.
Why are your views so important for us?
You may be:
a public authority who has given – or are thinking of giving – subsidies
a beneficiary who has received a subsidy (for example a business or third sector organisation)
a competitor to a beneficiary
an investor
any other stakeholder with an interest in the regime
To achieve a robust and representative evidence base, we need to understand how you experience the regime. The more views and evidence we can gather, the better we can reflect users’ experience and the more accurately we can communicate that in our final report (to be published in 2026).
It’s important to say that our work here is not about enforcement or seeing if particular subsidies comply with the law. Rather, we want to know how well the different elements of the regime are all working – and whether they could be improved.
The more people respond, and the more open that you are in your responses, the better and more robust our final report will be.
How to have your say
This page includes a Call for Inputs document which gives you the opportunity to have your say and provide evidence about the effectiveness and the impact of the UK’s subsidy control regime and how it is being operated.
Email your responses to sau-monitoringreport2026@cma.gov.uk
The closing date for responses is 24 June 2025.
We’ll also be engaging directly with stakeholders and gathering further evidence until late 2025, including through case studies, stakeholder interviews, roundtables and data analysis. We look forward to engaging with you and hearing your views over the coming months.
Your personal data
Any personal data you provide to us through CMA Connect (such as your name and contact details) will be handled in accordance with our obligations under the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018.
Our personal information charter sets out the standards you can expect from us when we collect, use or share personal data and provides details of your rights in relation to that personal data and how to contact us.
Find out more about the SAU and its monitoring and referral roles in a blog by our senior director, Adam Land and on our website. This includes our reports on public authority subsidy control assessments.
