Oral Answers to Questions

Toby Perkins Excerpts

Tuesday 8th January 2019 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. May I gently say to colleagues that we have a lot to get through? We need to speed up.

[Toby Perkins (Chesterfield) (Lab)]

3. What assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the pubs code and the Pubs Code Adjudicator.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Kelly Tolhurst)]

We will be undertaking a statutory review of the effectiveness of the pubs code and the Pubs Code Adjudicator. I welcome the recent publication by the adjudicator of arbitration decisions, which will increase transparency in relation to how the code is working in practice.

[Toby Perkins]

At a recent meeting of the all-party parliamentary group on pubs, we heard from many tenants who had attempted to avail themselves of the “market rent only” option under the pubs code, but whose attempts had been frustrated. Will the review to which the Minister has referred involve a full and open consultation to which members of the public will be able to contribute, and which we will all be able to read afterwards?

[Kelly Tolhurst]

I recognise the hon. Gentleman’s commitment to this issue. We are currently working out how we will carry out the review, and, under statutory regulation, we need to do that until the end of March. Of course we understand some of the concerns that have been raised by people who have been affected; we will take account of their views, and I will ensure that those views are heard.