FOI release

FOI - Budget, revenue and staffing enquiry

Published 28 October 2024

Applies to England and Wales

© Crown copyright 2024

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pubs-code-adjudicator-foi-responses-2024/foi-budget-revenue-and-staffing-enquiry

FOI/203720

Thank you for your email, received on 27 June 2024, in which you requested information from the office of the Pubs Code Adjudicator (PCA) under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. 

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 entitles you to:

  • know whether the information you have requested is held by the PCA; and
  • be provided with that information, subject to any exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000 which may apply.

Your request (in bold) followed by the PCA’s response is below: 

Please supply the following information for your Agency ONLY, (do not including any data on other agencies or public bodies that may report to you) for the period of 2023:

  1. Year of Creation/Launch/Establishment? 21 July 2016
  2. Your Annual Budget for the financial year of 2022/23? The PCA’s annual budget figures are published in the 2022-23 Annual Report and Financial Statements, following certification by the National Audit Office and the link to those accounts is here. The budget included an 80% loan repayment to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) for the 2020-21 year when the approval for the imposition of the levy was not granted due to the impact of the Covid 19 pandemic on the pub industry.
  3. Other Revenue received but not from government? The PCA does not receive any government funding, the Secretary of State has to annually approve the imposition of a levy on the 6 pub companies it regulates.
  4. Fiscal Powers: No
  5. Regulatory Powers:

   The PCA was established under the Small Business, Enterprise and

Employment Act 2015 (SBEEA) and is responsible for ensuring compliance with the Pubs Code etc. Regulation 2016 (the Pubs Code). The Adjudicator’s powers and duties are found in SBEEA, the Pubs Code and the Pubs Code (Fees, Costs and Financial Penalties) Regulation 2016. 

To enforce the Pubs Code, the Adjudicator has statutory powers to issue advice and guidance on aspects of the Pubs Code and the regulatory framework; to require pub-owning businesses to provide information on their compliance with the Pubs Code and on the management of their tied pub estates covered by the Pubs Code; and to monitor the day-to-day operation of the Pubs Code. 

The PCA has statutory powers to investigate, where the Adjudicator has reasonable grounds to suspect that there have been breaches of the Pubs Code; and subsequently to take enforcement action in the event that a breach is found.  

The PCA has a statutory duty to report to the Secretary of State any practices by pub-owning businesses that the Adjudicator believes meet the test for an unfair business practice set out in section 71A of the SBEEA.            

The Adjudicator also has a statutory duty either to arbitrate disputes between tied tenants and their pub-owning businesses under the Pubs Code framework that are referred to the PCA or to appoint an alternative arbitrator.  

  1. Do you sponsor other Public Bodies: No.
  2. Number of permanent staff? The PCA was set up in statute as a corporation sole so is not able to employ anyone. Team members are seconded from other government organisations, the private sector or procured via a Crown Commercial Framework agreement.
  3. Number of temporary staff (including part timers)? See 7 above.
  4. Number of contract staff employed, (self-employed)? Not including the Adjudicator which is a statutory appointment, but including non-payroll staff on secondment or contracted from other organisations, the PCA had a maximum of 16 team members in 2023. This includes full time and part time team members.

In the interests of providing advice and assistance the PCA is an arm’s length body of the Department for Business and Trade (“DBT”) (formerly the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) and is provided with assistance by DBT pursuant to the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015. 

You will see that although the PCA is not obliged to provide you with information which is already in the public domain, it has done so in order to be helpful. 

If you do not believe that the office of the PCA has provided an appropriate response to your request, as set out above, you are entitled to ask for an internal review. Internal review requests should be submitted within two months of the date of receipt of the response to your original request and should be made in writing, quoting the above reference, to office@pubscodeadjudicator.gov.uk or:

PCA

4th Floor 

23 Stephenson Street

Birmingham B2 4BJ

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.

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