Andrew Griffiths, Toby Perkins and Jo Swinson among MPs to debate pubs code bill

The list of MPs who will debate the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill, which includes plans for the pubs code, has been announced.

They include chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Beer Group and Conservative MP, Andrew Griffiths; Labour’s shadow pubs minister, Toby Perkins and Jo Swinson, the Liberal Democrat minister who kicked off the process to issue statutory code proposals.

They will be part of the committee that will go through the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill line by line and present their findings in a report to the Government. They will be charged with approving the wording for the Pubs Code – which will regulate the relationship between pubcos and their tied tenants.

After their report there will be a third reading of the bill before it passes to the House of Lords for final consideration.

At the second reading of the bill in July MPs expressed ‘grave concerns’ about the proposals.

There are 19 members of the committee, who are expected to meet for the first time on 14 October and stop taking evidence by 6 November. Comments on the bill can be sent to scrutiny@parliament.uk.

Members of the committee:

Graham Brady (Conservative, Altrincham and Sale West)

Jim Dobbin (Labour, Heywood and Middleton)

Nicola Blackwood (Con, Oxford West and Abingdon)

Oliver Colvile (Con, Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)

Stephen Doughty (Lab, Cardiff South and Penarth)

Bill Esterson (Lab, Sefton Central)

Mark Garnier  (Con, Wyre Forest)

Stephen Gilbert (Liberal Democrats, St Austell and Newquay)

Sheila Gilmore (Lab, Edinburgh East)

Andrew Griffiths (Con, Burton)

Mathew Hancock (Con, West Suffolk)

Andy McDonald (Lab, Middlesbrough)

Anne Marie Morris (Con, Newton Abbot)

Ian Murray (Lab, Edinburgh South)

Sheryll Murray (Con, South East Cornwall)

Toby Perkins (Lab, Chesterfield)

David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party, Upper Bann)

Mel Stride (Con, Central Devon)

Jo Swinson (Lib Dem, East Dunbartonshire)

Chris White (Con, Warwick and Leamington)

Iain Wright (Lab, Hartlepool)