Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)

The case is especially strong for that because the Office to Promote Competition in the Insurance Market is approximately five years old now and it is ten years since there has been a new entrant to the market. Five years into the lifetime of that office, we still have no new entrants. The office should not just be concerned necessarily with competition for the market by new entrants but also how competition is working internally within the market.

That then speaks to my next question, which concerns the function brokers play. I was taken by Mr. Jennings' reference to the fact - I know it is a generalisation, and I hope I am paraphrasing him correctly - that brokers used to look after the interests of the customer but it now seems that they are almost doing the bidding of the providers themselves. In a way, that speaks to the problem of market concentration. When they are dealing with so few underwriters and active actors in the sector, they may feel beholden, which restricts their opportunities to operate in the way they may be used to. It is interesting how that dynamic has changed. Mr. Jennings referenced that the CCPC may have a function in examining the impact of broker consolidation. By "broker consolidation", I assume that Mr. Jennings is saying that a number of small independent local brokerages have been bought by larger concerns in recent years and this market concentration may be having a knock-on effect on competition and, therefore, on value for consumers. Is that the case?