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Economy, Energy and Fair Work Committee 02 March 2021

02 Mar 2021 · S5 · Economy, Energy and Fair Work Committee

Item of business

Tied Pubs (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2

Bibby, Neil Lab West Scotland Watch on SPTV

Good morning. I refer members to my entry in the register of members’ interests, as I did last week. Before I speak to this group of amendments, I thank committee members, again, for their continued consideration of stage 2 amendments. I look forward to concluding the proceedings in a timely fashion. As I did last week, I will keep my contributions concise and to the point. I will not waste any of our time by speaking to amendments that ignore the Parliament’s support for the general principles of the bill at stage 1, such as those that would remove the role of the adjudicator and other fundamental provisions altogether. First, I will speak to the minister’s amendments in the group. Providing for a market-rent-only option for tied tenants is a central and fundamental part of the bill. In drafting the bill, I paid careful attention to the MRO lease that is available to some tied tenants in England and Wales under the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015, and to the many reports of the failure of its provisions. That failure seems to be due, in part, to the many complex trigger points and criteria that govern whether a tenant has the right to request that an MRO offer be made. I am keen to avoid such problems in providing for an MRO lease in Scotland. Therefore, the bill gives tenants an unqualified right to request an MRO offer from their pub-owning business. I am acutely aware from my on-going liaison with tied tenants that they view the right to request an MRO offer as an essential part of rebalancing the relationship between tenants and landlords and addressing the vast difference in power. I thank the minister for engaging me in discussions over a number of weeks on the amendments that he has lodged to allow the code to specify circumstances in which an MRO offer need not be made by a pub company, and for listening to my views and concerns. I was reassured by the minister’s comments last week. I do not believe that it is the Government’s intention to undermine the spirit of the fundamental right that is provided for in the bill that all tenants should be able to request an MRO offer. I acknowledge that there might be limited circumstances in which it would not be appropriate for a request for an MRO offer to be honoured, and that it would therefore be appropriate for the code to specify such circumstances. On that basis, and having heard the minister set out the Government’s intentions, I will support amendments 5 to 8. The other amendments in the group, which I have considered carefully, all appear to weaken the MRO provisions that are set out in the bill and in the minister’s amendments. Many of them would add the trigger points and criteria that have caused confusion in England and Wales and led to the MRO provisions being deemed a failure. Some of the amendments appear to go even further. One of my central aims was to learn lessons from the legislation in England and Wales and to significantly simplify, where possible and appropriate, in the bill all such provisions, and particularly the MRO measures. Many of the amendments would greatly complicate the MRO process and render it unworkable and unusable. We have heard from the minister that there will be a full consultation process to inform the drafting of the code. That consultation process is the right and proper place to consider the issues that are raised by some of the amendments. The issue is too important to risk including any of the amendments in primary legislation without proper consideration and without consulting those who will be affected most by the measures. I therefore urge the committee to reject all non-Government amendments in the group.

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Economy, Energy and Fair Work Committee 02 March 2021

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