Tied pubs - Scottish Pubs Code: consultation 3 – analysis report

1. Introduction

Background

This report presents analysis of responses to a public consultation on a Scottish Pubs Code for tied pubs (the Code).

The Scottish Pubs Code Regulations 2024 create rights and protections for tied pub tenants and place requirements on pub-owning businesses in line with the three regulatory principles set out in the Tied Pubs (Scotland) Act 2021 (the Act) namely:

(a) the principle of fair and lawful dealing by pub-owning businesses in relation to their tied-pub tenants

(b) the principle that tied-pub tenants should not be worse off than they would be if they were subject to neither a product tie nor a service tie

(c) the principle that any agreement between a pub-owning business and a tied pub tenant should fairly share the risks and rewards amongst the parties.

The consultation

The consultation exercise was launched on 17 September and ran until 4 November 2024.

This was the third consultation on this subject, and did not revisit all topics within the Code, including whether there should be a code or not. Rather, it was a short, targeted consultation drawing upon concerns raised by stakeholders following the making of the Scottish Pubs Code Regulations 2024. It was informed by workshops carried out with tenant and pub-owning business representatives.

The consultation asked 20 questions, of which 14 had both closed and open elements, and six were entirely open. Responses will help Ministers to decide what changes should be made to the Code. The consultation documents are available on the Scottish Government’s website.

Profile of responses

In total 21 responses were received, of which 16 were from groups or organisations and 5 from individual members of the public. Where consent has been given to publish the response, it can be found on the Scottish Government’s website.

Respondents were asked to identify whether they were responding as an individual or on behalf of a group or organisation. Group respondents were allocated to one of three groups by the analysis team. A breakdown of the number of responses received by respondent type is set out below, and a full list of group respondents appended to this report as Annex 1.

Points to note about the respondent groups are that:

• One of the Campaign groups, Campaign for Pubs, noted that it has publican members in Scotland, and also works with other groups with publican members. The other, CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale), is a consumer organisation representing beer drinkers and pub-goers across the UK.
• The Representative bodies are a diverse group which includes the British Institute of Innkeeping, Society of Independent Brewers and Associates, the Pubs Advisory Service^[1] and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).
• The Representative body group also includes two organisations which have been heavily involved in representing their membership in discussions about the Code in Scotland. Reflecting this role, the analysis of further comments refers to the Scottish Beer and Pub Association as a ‘major representative body for pub-owning businesses’, and the Scottish Licenced Trade Association as a ‘major representative body for tenants’.
• The individual respondents include one respondent who identifies themselves as currently renting a pub, one who reported that they have rented a pub in the past and one with a connection to a pub-owning company.

Analysis and reporting

The report presents a question-by-question analysis of answers to the closed questions and further comments at open questions. The results at the closed questions are presented in charts in the main report and in tables at Annex 2.

As with any public consultation exercise, it should be noted that those responding generally have a particular interest in the subject area. Therefore, the views they express cannot necessarily be seen as representative of wider public opinion.