Regulatory Compliance Handbook: Demonstrating Compliance with the Pubs Code
The Regulatory Compliance Handbook sets out the minimum standards that pubs companies must follow to be Code compliant. It also sets out the steps that they must take each time it prepares and issues a proposal for a Market Rent Only (MRO) tenancy to one of its tied tenants.
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This Handbook sets out the PCA’s expectation of behaviours that pub-owning businesses (POB) should adopt in order to comply with particular aspects of the Pubs Code.
It also makes clear the minimum steps the PCA will expect a POB to take in satisfying itself that its proposed MRO terms meet the Pubs Code tests on commonality and reasonableness. The Handbook also includes a ‘MRO Compliance Record and Declaration’ to be completed in respect of every MRO proposal that must be signed by the POB’s Code Compliance Officer. This full information about how the POB justifies its MRO proposal, which will be its primary evidence of compliance and which the TPT can obtain, is aimed at reducing disputes and making any negotiations fair.
The chapter also contains advice on how the MRO proposal must be served and presented. It does not presuppose the offer of a new tenancy.
Tied tenants are urged to provide feedback to the PCA on their experiences at the end of the MRO procedure by completing the MRO questionnaire.
The chapter is statutory advice issued by the Pubs Code Adjudicator under section 60 of the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015. The MRO Compliance Record and Declaration will apply to MRO full responses issued in respect of a MRO Notice served on or after 21 November 2019.
Last updated 30 March 2022 + show all updates
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Amended page 13 ‘MRO negotiation period’ changed to ‘MRO procedure
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Reissued with revisions and in a single document.
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First published.