FOI release

FOI – MRO, Section 25 and 26 Notice, Unfair Treatment, Renewal Process

Updated 7 October 2025

Applies to England and Wales

Our ref: FOI/354236

Date: 10 December 2024

1. Freedom of Information request

Thank you for your letter received on 15 November 2024. 

This letter concerns the aspects of your 15 November letter which we are required to process in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (Act). 

The Act entitles you to:

• know whether the information you have requested is held by the PCA; and
• be provided with that information, subject to any exemptions in the Act which may apply.

You have requested the following information:

1. The number of Tied Tenants are currently being faced with a Section 25 notice served with the landlord’s intention of employing Ground G(1)?
2. The number of Tenants have served Section 26 Notices on the Landlord and have been rejected on the Grounds of g(1)?
3. The number of Tenants who have served a section 26 notice have served an MRO notice within the Pubs Code Guidelines and have been successful in attaining a positive MRO response and in comparison, the number of tenants who were opposed under the grounds of g (1) of the Landlord and Tenant Cct who had served the MRO notice
4. The number of tenants, to your knowledge, who have approached the PCA with concerns of unfair treatment in their renewal process in any manner and how many of these tenants notified the Pubco. of MRO

You have requested this information be provided “in a format specifically in reference to Stonegate and in reference to the 6 Pub Cos you govern as a collective”.

2. Our response

The PCA does not hold the information you have requested in questions 1, 2 and 3.

In relation to question 4, the PCA does hold information relevant to this request. However, it is estimated that the time required to locate and extract the information will exceed the “appropriate limit” provided under section 12 of the Act.  The appropriate limit for the PCA is 18 hours, as provided under the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. 

The reasons for our conclusion that the appropriate limit will be exceeded are as follows: 

1. From 1 January 2017 to 29 November 2024, the PCA’s IT system holds records of

1378 tenant enquiries.  Of these, 479 include the term “MRO” and 183 include the term “renewal”.   In addition to these tenant enquiries, the scope of your request would also appear to include arbitrations brought by tenants.  

1. In combination to the time already spent locating these files, it is estimated that the time required to retrieve the documents within each file and review them is likely to exceed 18 hours.

3. Next steps

You may wish to reframe or refocus your request to bring it within the appropriate limit under the Act.  For example, you may wish to narrow your enquiry by requesting “the number of tenants who have either made an enquiry to the PCA or submitted an arbitration referral in the last two years, concerning unfair treatment in their renewal process”.  

If you do reframe or refocus your question, this will be treated as a new request under the Act.

If you do not believe that the office of the PCA has provided an appropriate response to your request, as set out above, you are entitled to ask for an internal review. Internal review requests should be submitted within two months of the date of receipt of the response to your original request and should be made in writing, quoting the above reference, to office@pubscodeadjudicator.gov.uk or:

Office of the Pubs Code Adjudicator

4th Floor

23 Stephenson Street

Birmingham

B2 4BJ

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.