Why PICAS must fill the information vacuum

15-Jul-2013 - Last updated on 16-Jul-2013 at 08:19 GMT

Willock: "I would urge PICA-Service to fill the vacuum with what it knows before others fill it with what they don’t know"

Nature abhors a vacuum. Since at least the early 17th century, we have known — thanks to Galileo — that a void is immediately filled with its surrounding material. Rob Willock argues that we can apply this theory to information as much as to physics, particularly in regard to the latest PICA-Service ruling.

In the absence of objective facts and figures, subjective opinions and best-guess calculations appear. And that is the problem with the latest Pubs Independent Conciliation & Arbitration Service (PICA-Service) ruling that saw Enterprise sanctioned for breaching the spirit of its code of practice in its dealings with an unnamed tenant.

The public output of a complicated case amounted to just one paragraph in a one-page press release: “Whilst the PICA-Service panel recognised the level of support the respondents had supplied to the complainants over a period of time, it had concerns as to failures to demonstrate that the level and quality of its communication with its tenants were to the standards to be expected of them when undertaking a rent review. It found that the pub company had not acted in accordance with the spirit of its code of practice. Damages and costs were awarded to the tenants.”

It is ironic, to say the least, that the communication of a PICA-Service decision that criticises the quality of a respondent’s communication is itself so thin and unhelpful.

This is a deeply unsatisfactory conclusion to a hearing whose outcome was widely anticipated in the tenanted community and beyond. While the case itself was conducted for the benefit of the parties involved — and while one can have sympathy with the complainant wishing to remain anonymous — surely another vital aspect of PICA-Service rulings is their ability pour encourager les autres.

Wrist-slaps

In the words of one of our online forum posters: “We need to open this up. I’m far less concerned about the names and addresses of parties than I am about the detail of the failure. In doing so, we can ensure others are enlightened and future conduct improves.”

If pubcos see their peers’ failures punished, then maybe they can more effectively put their own houses in order and these practices will more quickly be eradicated. And if tenants and lessees can see the sorts of code infringements that are attracting criticism, they will be more confident in standing up for their rights.

I’d hate to think that PICA-Service is destined to hear time and time again complainants bemoaning the same sort of offences, and then ruling on them in camera without giving any real insight into the process or its findings.

Needless to say that, into this information vacuum, fanciful conspiracy theories have quickly arrived, including the suggestion that, while the Government is pondering the need for statutory regulation in the tenanted pub sector, PICA-Service will issue a few mild wrist-slaps to pubcos to show the system of self-regulation is working before reverting back to its role as pubco lapdog.

Unless it is happy to suffer such defamation, I would urge PICA-Service to fill the vacuum with what it knows before others fill it with what they don’t know.

In the words of Galileo’s contemporary William Shakespeare: “Nothing will come of nothing. Speak again.”