The body which was set up to monitor trading practices between supermarkets and their direct suppliers could be abolished under new proposals from the UK government.

A new review into the functioning of the Groceries Code Adjudicator (GCA) sets out various proposals, including merging the watchdog with another public body, or abolishing the GCA altogether.

Business Minister Jane Hunt said the UK government was “particularly interested” to find out if transferring the GCA’s functions to the Competition and Markets Authority would lead to “gains in efficiency and effectiveness”.

This is the third review into the GCA since it was set up nine years ago.

The first review in 2016 also considered if the GCA should be scrapped or merged with another public body, although neither proposal was taken forward at the time.