Statutory code: Vince Cable assures pub tenants they will be given "equal weight" in consultation
Cable was responding to a question from Conservative MP Robin Walker during today’s Business, Innovation and Skills Committee (BISC) questions on the BIS department’s annual report and accounts.
Walker said: “There have been concerns in the past that consultations have been focused on the pubcos, the breweries and the larger organisations. Can you assure us that the consultation will take into account the views of pub lessees and some of the campaign groups involved as well?”
In response, Cable said that “they must be included”, and added: “I think it would be very difficult to envisage a situation in which we ignore or downplay the views of tens of thousands of pubs because that is actually at the heart of the politics of this, and of course we are listening to them.”
Cable told committee members that one of the key areas to be covered in the forthcoming consultation will the future of the existing voluntary framework code, which the government opted to strengthen at the end of 2011.
He said: “There was a rather important question that was raised (in the debate) that I don’t have an easy answer to, and we need to get through consultation, which is ‘what happens to the voluntary code when the new statutory framework is established?’
“There will be a lot of smaller pubcos who currently observe the voluntary code, where there may not be same degree of incentive to respect it. We will need to think about how that will operate.”
Cable added that the consultation will also need to explore how the principle of ‘fair dealing’ - the parity between tied and non-tied licensees - can be framed in a way that has “legal force”.
He also agreed “in principal” to include reform arrangements for AWP (amusement with prizes) machines and the regulation of flow monitoring equipment in the consultation, following a question from Labour MP Ann McKechin.
“In principal, I am perfectly happy to include them,” said Cable. “They were not quite so central, and there are other issues we need to have in the consultation as well and we are working out how best to phrase the questions so we get the sensible answers.”
The business secretary assured the BISC’s chairman Adrian Bailey MP that he will do all he can to get the legislation for the statutory code and adjudicator introduced as soon as possible, and added he “would be very happy to share our thoughts with you (BISC) and work with you” on the appointment of the adjudicator.
