The Publican’s Morning Advertiser (PMA) had asked for all documents between 20 September 2012 and 30 October 2012 on the issue.
On 17 October parliamentary under-secretary of state for employment relations and consumer affairs Jo Swinson refused an interview with the PMA, and her department (Business, Innovation & Skills) claimed all commitments had been achieved.
Yet only days later, on 30 October, Vince Cable denied the Government was washing its hands of the issue and admitted that he was concerned about the speed of the introduction of the self-regulation agreement.
In a letter to the PMA, BIS said it confirmed that “the department holds information falling within the terms of your request”.
Public interest
The BIS said the policy regarding the pubs sector and the specific issue of the relationship between pub companies and their tenants is a ‘live’ policy, and the release of the specific details of communications between ministers and officials at this time would not be in the “public interest”.
However, within the documents that were provided there was little to indicate the reasons for the change.
In a briefing for Swinson on 17 October it stated that there was little interest in the issue. The document said: “Despite the frequent lobbying by Mr Mulholland, level of public interest in this subject by people other than him is currently low.”
It also stated: “The main stakeholder groups have largely moved on — CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale), for example, is running a major campaign on the beer duty escalator rather than the beer tie.”
In a ministerial briefing on 29 October, BIS admitted it had not committed to monitoring the industry’s self-regulation deal and said: “Further improvements are a matter for the industry.”