FOI - Communications, marketing, press and public affairs
Published 7 October 2025
Applies to England and Wales
© Crown copyright 2025
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FOI/359264
Thank you for your email, received on 6 January 2025, in which you requested information from the office of the Pubs Code Adjudicator (PCA) under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 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 Freedom of Information Act 2000 which may apply.
Your request (in bold) followed by the Pubs Code Adjudicator’s response is below: What is the headcount (number) of staff employed in communications, marketing, press and public affairs in your organisation?
I can confirm that the headcount (number) of staff employed by Office of the Pubs Code Adjudicator in communications, marketing, press and public affairs is zero (0).
The Pubs Code Adjudicator (PCA) is a corporation sole established under the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 and does not employ anyone. Staff, other than the appointed Pubs Code Adjudicator, are seconded to the Office of the PCA from their home organisation. All staff retain the terms and conditions of the organisation from which they are seconded.
The PCA is an arm’s length body of the Department for Business and Trade (“DBT”) (formerly the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) and is provided with assistance by DBT pursuant to the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015.
The Pubs Code Adjudicator currently has twelve (12) individuals engaged to work at the Office of the Pubs Code Adjudicator. The PCA does not have dedicated communications, marketing, press and public affairs staff, rather we have three individuals working more broadly across stakeholder engagement. If necessary, the PCA would enlist this support via the Government Communications Service or externally procure via the Crown Commercial Services framework.
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: PCA 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. The Information Commissioner will not usually accept complaints before the internal review procedure has been completed.