Tied Pubs (Scotland) Act 2021 implementation - food and drink: equality impact assessment

Key Findings

The screening exercise considered issues relating to gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy/maternity, marriage/civil partnership and religious belief. For all of these characteristics, it was assessed that implementing the Act would have no impact.

In general, successful implementation of the Act would mean that tenant and pub-owning business relationships are fairer, which should minimise discrimination on any basis, protected characteristic or otherwise.

In the case of age, disability, gender and race, it was identified that the EQIA needed to explore the make-up of these groups in the tied pub sector in Scotland (if possible) and also the sector in England and Wales, and whether there had been any positive or negative impacts to these groups through the creation of the pubs code and the Pubs Code Adjudicator in England and Wales.

On age, it was identified that there was a need for the Adjudicator to provide an inclusive service. For example, by having a telephone and post contact point, to assist older tenants and those without broadband, although it was recognised that a majority of people have internet access^[2]. One stakeholder had suggested that the policy could potentially particularly impact on young people accessing the tied pubs sector, if the impact of implementation of the Act results in fewer tied pubs. The evidence from England and Wales, including from the most recent 2023 survey of tied pub tenants^[3], suggests that the implementation of the Pubs Code has not resulted in a lower proportion of young people within the tied pubs sector compared to 2019^[4].

On disability, in a 2022 survey of tied pub tenants^[5] in England and Wales, respondents who said they were disabled were slightly less aware of the Pubs Code Adjudicator and were likely to be less satisfied with their relationship with the pub-owning business. However, there was no difference in the proportion of respondents requesting a Market Rent Only lease amongst those who said they were disabled and those who said they were not. It is not possible to compare tenants satisfaction with their pub-owning business relationship before the Pubs Code in England and Wales was established and what the demographics of the sector were pre-code, as the data is not available.

On sex, in the 2022 survey of tied pub tenants^[6] in England and Wales there were no significant differences in satisfaction with the pub-owning business between men and women surveyed. There was also no difference in how likely each group contacted the Pubs Code Adjudicator in the past two years, potentially suggesting that women are no more or less likely to raise issues about the relationship with the pub-owning business compared to men.

On race, the 2022 survey of tied pub tenants^[7] in England and Wales showed 98% were from a white ethnic group and 1% were from a minority ethnic group and in the 2023 survey of tied pub tenants^[8] in England and Wales, 95% were from a white ethnic group and 2% were from a minority ethnic group. There is no written analysis published about whether an individual’s ethnicity impacted on their experience of the code.

In the main it was clear that we do not have sufficient evidence on the demographics of the tied pub tenants in Scotland.