Shadow Pubs Code Adjudicator for Scotland: FOI release

Information requested

You asked for the following:

1. Dates and times of all meetings Scottish Pubs Code Adjudicator held since August 2022 with stakeholders (i.e., industry representative/brewers/pub companies etc),
2. Copies of any invites sent to attendees.
3. Copies of the agenda for the meetings.
4. The names of those attending and the organisations or companies they represented.
5. Confirmation of any speaking engagements (non-meeting) where Ms Havlin attended in her official capacity as the Shadow Pubs Code Adjudicator for Scotland.
6. Confirmation of all/any hospitality the minister has accepted in the last 8 months, i.e., travel, food tickets to events. The dates and times and or the value of the hospitality they enjoyed should be included for each instance.

Response

The answer to your question is as follows:

The meetings that the Shadow Scottish Pubs Code Adjudicator has had with stakeholders are with the Scottish Beer and Pub Association (SBPA) and British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) on 5 December 2022. There was also a meeting with the Scottish Licensed Trade Association on 7 December.

I attach the email to the SLTA regarding the meeting. There is no similar email saved on the system for the meeting with the SBPA/BBPA.

There was no formal agenda circulated for the meeting with the SBPA / BBPA on 5 December but the topics of discussion were as follows:

Update on Implementation, Shadow Adjudicator Role, Arbitration Process, Investigation Policy, Levy, Discussion.

The names of those attending and the organisations or companies they represented are

Sarah Havlin, Shadow Scottish Pubs Code Adjudicator
Andy Tighe, Director of Strategy and Policy, BBPA
Paul Togneri, Senior Policy Manager, SBPA
Aileen Bearhop, Scottish Government

Again, there was no formal agenda circulated for the meeting with the SLTA on 7 December but the topics of discussion were as follows:

Update on Implementation, Shadow Adjudicator Role, Arbitration Process, Investigation Policy, Levy, Discussion.

The names of those attending and the organisations or companies they represented are

Sarah Havlin, Shadow Scottish Pubs Code Adjudicator
Colin Wilkinson, Managing Director, SLTA
Gavin Stevenson, Member and policy adviser, SLTA
Aileen Bearhop, Scottish Government

There have been no speaking engagements for the Adjudicator.

On your final point where I sought clarification and you responded as follows 'we are referring to the hospitality enjoyed by the Shadow Pubs Code Adjudicator, we recognise that they are not a minister' I can confirm that the Shadow Adjudicator has not received any hospitality.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because an exemption under section 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to that information. This information has been replaced with [Redacted].

The reasons why that exemption applies is explained below.

Reason for not providing information

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party, i.e. the names and contact details of individuals, and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018.

This exemption is not subject to the ‘public interest test’ so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI 202300349378 - Information Released - Email

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