Sutherland’s portfolio meant he had responsibility for such matters as commercial competition, company mergers, cartels, state aid, and anti-trust law. He was also given during a reshuffle of the Commission at the end of 1985 responsibility for the Commission's relations with the European Parliament.

A lot of the files seem to be Richard O’ Tooles (Sutherland's Chef de Cabinet), which is why there could be some over-lap in some of the files.