In December, the group submitted a FOI request to the department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) asking for details of which ministers and officials met with the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA). It also asked for more detail on where the department sought legal advice on the implementation of the Industry Framework Code (IFC).
The Business, Innovation and Skills Committee (BISC) report had called for a Statutory Code of Practice and an adjudicator to manage the relationship between pubcos and tenants.
However, business minister Ed Davey supported self-regulation and agreed a deal with the BBPA and industry partners that promised a “toughened” self-regulatory regime and a legally binding framework code.
However, the response from BIS received by chairman and MP Greg Mullholland withholds parts of the information requested. BIS claims they are exempt from disclosure under exemptions relating to “commercial confidentiality, policy advice to Ministers, legal professional privilege and information provided in confidence.” It also withholds information on the Government’s legal advice.
Save the Pub Group has written again to Minister of State, Ed Davey, requesting information on how many documents have been withheld and for what reason, before considering taking the request to the Information Commissioner.
Chair of the Save the Pub Group Greg Mulholland commented:
“It is worrying, though perhaps not surprising, that BIS are refusing to release all the information requested of them. It appears that this is an attempt to cover up the quite appalling collusion that has been going on between BIS and the pubcos and their representative organisation, the BBPA, to cover up the fact they failed to take proper legal advice and instead accepted what the BBPA’s lawyer was telling them.
“What we also do now know, as a result of the information secured under freedom of information legislation, is that BIS have been secretly working for months with the BBPA to come up with yet another so called ‘self regulatory solution’.
"The truth is that the Minister and officials had made their mind up well before the Select Committee report and since then have not only ignored it, but worse still have worked with the very companies responsible for the problems to come up with a way of ignoring it”.
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