OFT delivers to the tune of £11m

A TOTAL of £11 million was saved for Scottish consumers by the Office of Fair Trading last year.

OFT figures show that £6 million was recovered through investigating price-fixing affecting Scottish consumers, £4 million was saved by action taken to address a lack of competition following mergers and a further £1 million was recovered through tackling scams such as fake lotteries, prize draws or psychic scams.

The OFT released the figures to mark the first year of its new office north of the Border, designed to bring businesses and consumers closer to competition and consumer law.

In the past 12 months the OFT has been involved in the "Save Xmas" campaign after the collapse of Farepak, recommending reforms in the Scottish legal profession and last month's Scams Awareness Month. It is also awaiting the outcome of the test case at the High Court in England over unfair bank charges.