Fair Pint challenges Enterprise on Brulines
Anti-beer tie campaign group Fair Pint has challenged Enterprise Inns to answer six key questions on its use of beer flow monitoring equipment.
In a letter to Enterprise tie compliance manager Ben Jones, copied in to the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee (BISC), Fair Pint has asked the pubco to clarify its use of both Brulines and Smartcellar in its pubs.
It has asked Enterprise to confirm that it:
• Accepts the flow monitoring equipment installed in pubs in the company's estate is not wholly accurate, that it cannot directly identify different fluids and that it cannot properly or accurately measure two phase flow
• Accepts that limited testing of equipment in laboratory conditions relying on immediate an non-adjusted data is not an accurate reflection of the use the flow monitoring equipment in pubs
• Accepts that the data produced for Enterprise and tenants of Enterprise by Brulines plc is the subject of manual adjustment and manual data input
• Does not seek monetary compensation, injunctive relief or consent orders in reliance on the manually adjusted data produced by Brulines plc
• Will write to all tenants of Enterprise Inns to make it clear that the data produced by Brulines plc for Enterprise and them is capable of manual adjustment and by necessity will almost certainly have been the subject of such adjustment and that you will amend your company's code of practice accordingly
• Will write to all tenants of Enterprise Inns and the BII to confirm that it is not properly able to rely on the data produced by Brulines as primary evidence in legal proceedings relating to allegations of "buying out" and accordingly that no employee of Enterprise Inns, or any representative of Enterprise Inns, will hold out otherwise.
A Fair Pint source said: "I don't expect Enterprise to answer these questions but if they don't, we can always bring this up in any future court cases and ask them on record why they have not answered these questions."
Discrepancies
In its new code of practice, Enterprise states that it will "undertake a thorough investigation" where data from flow monitoring equipment shows a discrepancy.
"If you dispute our findings, we will not simply raise a charge at this point relying solely upon the flow monitoring data in our possession," it says.
"In each case where we are relying upon data produced by the flow-monitoring system, we will check and validate the calibration of the relevant flow-meters to ensure that the equipment is functioning correctly."
Brulines is currently working with the National Measurement Office on testing its equipment after a recommendation from BISC.
However, last year Trading Standards and Local Government co-ordinator LACORS said that Brulines is not covered under section 11 of the Weights and Measures Act, which means it does not require official accreditation.
