BIS: Davey to face scrutiny from committee

Last week, Government shunned the BISC suggestions of a Statutory Code of Practice in favour of self-regulation. This included strengthening the Industry Framework Code, which will be made legally binding, the formation of a Pub Independent Conciliation Advisory Service (PICAS) and a three-year accreditation service for company codes.

More importantly, the Government claimed it considered the debate over ‘tied’ or ‘free-of tie’ to be largely a “distraction”.

It said: “There is nothing in itself that causes the tie to be fundamentally wrong — and in some instances, the tied model may be essential to preservation of small British brewers and local beer.”

Chairman Adrian Bailey, who previously launched a stinging attack on pubcos lack of action, said he wants the minister to explain how Government plans to monitor its agreement over this package of reforms.

Bailey said he had a “number of concerns” about the new agreement. In particular, he wants reassurances about the lack of detail on the strengthening of the code, balance of representation of the PICAS panel, and lack of action over the beer-tie, Amusement with Prizes machines and Brulines.

He said: “The Government has not delivered the statutory intervention we re-
commended but proposed an alternative which it believes will deliver the same results.

“How this will work and whether it will be comparable to statutory intervention is open to question. We are calling the minister before us so that he can set out in detail how he will deliver this package of reforms.”

His concerns are supported by industry insiders, who have raised concern about PICAS replacing the BII mediation service.