Professor John Vickers (chief economist and executive director of the Bank of England) is to take over from Mr John Bridgman as director general of fair trading when he comes to the end of his term of office at the end of September.
This means that Mr Bridgman will not be at the head of the Office of Fair Trading to steer through the Restrictive Practices Court the challenge he launched to resale price maintenance on medicines. The case is expected to begin on October 2.