Vince Cable urged to get on with introducing statutory code

In a letter to the Chair of the Committee the Department asked the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee for its views in light of the published responses.

In a letter to the Secretary of State, Adrian Bailey MP, Chair of the BIS Committee, makes clear that the Committee will not be reopening its inquiry into pubs and urges the Government to stop delaying and bring forward a Bill.

Commenting on the letter, Adrian Bailey MP said

"We gave our views in our July 2013 Report–the latest in a long series of Reports on this matter–in which we called on the Government to bring forward legislation without delay.  Asking the Committee for its views on the evidence appears to be just the sort of delay we warned against.

It is for the Government to assess the evidence and legislate accordingly.  However, despite the fact that it has had six months to consider the views of the industry, it has done neither.

If the Government continues to drag its feet there is a serious risk that there will be insufficient parliamentary time left to establish a Statutory Code. At the beginning of the Parliament, the Secretary of State gave us an undertaking that he would act in the interest of the pub industry. If he doesn’t do so very soon, we will end the Parliament exactly where we started.  This would be an unacceptable failure.  The Government must act and act now."