Dear Darren,

The use and abuse of hostile Section 25 notices by regulated pub-owning companies, for the purpose of gaming and subverting the Pubs Code.

I am writing to you as Chair of the BEIS Select Committee in my capacity as both Chair of the Campaign for Pubs, and also as a practising licensee who is directly affected by the issue I wish to raise in this letter.

t was heartening to see the Committee’s recent encounter with the management of P&O. There appeared to be a real appetite for tackling the unjust treatment of people and their livelihoods. I mention this because it relates directly to the issue at hand.

Background

As you will no doubt be aware, it is now over five years since the Pubs Code came into effect. I am glad to say that the critical findings of successive Business Select Committees were ultimately very helpful in securing the Code, with no less than four committee sessions exposing the systematic misbehaviour of the pub-owning companies, and especially their brazen refusal to respect the repeated opportunities they were given to self-regulate. We now call on the Committee again for their help…