Times are hard at the Office of Fair Trading. The competition authority has gone cap in hand to the Government’s Contingencies Fund for an £8.8m bail-out it says it needs to “meet an urgent cash requirement on existing services”. The loan – or “net cash requirement” in OFT-speak – is required “in order to settle material liabilities recognised in the prior year”, elaborates employment relations minister Jo Swinson in a ministerial statement. It's not clear at this stage how the watchdog managed to accumulate such pressing liabilities. But there’s no cause for alarm – the OFT insists the bail-out, which is subject to Parliamentary approval, “will be repaid”......Read more here