The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has widened its active probe into suspected bid-rigging on school roofing contracts to cover activity by more firms.
Its investigation now includes unnamed “additional parties”, the watchdog announced yesterday (29 January) in a statement.
The probe. launched in December, was originally focused on roofing and other construction-related contracts funded through the Department for Education’s (DfE’s) Condition Improvement Fund (CIF), to explore whether firms breached the Competition Act 1998.
Based on the evidence reviewed to date, however, the CMA believes that suspected anti-competitive conduct went beyond schools eligible for CIF funding.
Construction News understands that the CMA now suspects similar conduct may have affected construction contracts funded by other public and private sector bodies, not just the DfE.
For the 2025/26 financial year, the DfE provided almost £470m in CIF funding to address condition issues in eligible schools, academies and sixth-form colleges.
In announcing the launch of the investigation in December 2024, the watchdog said it had already conducted “unannounced inspections” at multiple business premises.
It said it had “reason to suspect” that firms providing roofing and construction services had colluded to fix bids for DfE-funded work.
If the CMA provisionally decides that the companies have broken competition law, it will issue a statement of objections, with firms having the opportunity to respond.
But in its latest update, the CMA said it did not assume “at this stage” that the Competition Act had been broken.
“The CMA has not reached a view as to whether there is sufficient evidence of an infringement of competition law for it to issue a statement of objections to any of the parties under investigation,” it added.
A CMA spokesperson said no further details are available on the case or companies being investigated.
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Ben Vogel