Supplementary memorandum submitted by
the British Institute of Innkeeping (BII)
BACKGROUND
BII have accredited company codes since 2007 through
a scheme known as BII Benchmarking and Accreditation Services
(BIIBAS). Currently seven codes are accredited, including Punch
Taverns, but not currently including Enterprise Inns who have
recently revised their code. We expect Enterprise to come forward
shortly for re-accreditation. The accreditation process has focused
on perceived reasonableness and clarity in how companies operate,
and monitoring has been mainly reactive, involving responding
to complaints from tenants that companies have not followed agreed
procedures. Broadly, about a third of complaints are found to
be out with the terms of reference of the scheme, often because
they relate to technical aspects associated with rent setting.
Of the remainder, most are found to be genuine breaches, but in
the vast majority of cases, companies act on our recommendations,
to the advantage of the tenant, and we are able to record these
as resolved breaches. There have been two unresolved breaches
this year. In these cases the tenant receives a letter to that
effect, which they can then lever during rent review, or also
potentially through the media. In future these will be publicly
noted. A considerable amount of related case work happens through
the BII Licensees support helpline. Only one code has been rejected
outright, but others have withdrawn following suggestions of changes.
DEVELOPMENT
As part of my initial review of BII's activities,
I undertook a review of the accreditation process and concluded
that the BIIBAS scheme was valuable, but had the potential to
work harder for the tenants and the industry more generally. I
was impressed with the time that went in to researching and responding
to individual complaints, and the fairness of the conclusions.
Whilst by its makeup, constitution, and work programme, BII is
not fully independent, I saw what I felt were impartial, balanced
and sophisticated judgments. However, I also felt that it could
be improved, especially in the areas of transparency and holding
pub companies to account. The steering committee agreed at its
meeting on 30 July 2009 to strengthen the scheme with
tighter monitoring and clearer reporting of outcomes. Critically,
it agreed to make clear to existing and prospective tenants how
companies are complying. A package of measures has been debated
by the BII council and will be discussed with the BIIBAS steering
group on 6 January. Separate to our inhouse review, there
has been a wider industry negotiation process, an outcome of which
was an agreement between BII, BBPA and the FLVA. This will have
a knock on effect to individual company codes which we think will
raise the bar for all. As BIIBAS code accreditation is now a condition
of BBPA membership we will see more codes, and the importance
of clear and consistent monitoring is increased.
THE FUTURE
To strengthen the whole process we plan three
changes: public reporting of overall company compliance, refreshing
the governance with new chairs and committee members, strengthening
licensee representation, and a sharper accreditation and monitoring
process which crucially, will include both proactive sampling
as well as reactive responding to complaints and the ability to
remove accreditation of codes.
Monitoring
There will be a new online and telephone process
for registering complaints. A service level agreement will set
response times, investigation and follow up arrangements. The
complainant will be kept informed of progress. All complaints
will remain confidential, with only summary information publicly
reported.
However, following the BESC inquiry and report,
we are planning a new more proactive approach, where we will undertake
a sample survey of lessees/tenants in order to ascertain broader
satisfaction levels and elicit good practice and lower level concerns.
Summary feedback will be published, and recommendations made to
individual companies. An annual report will summarise all activity,
outcomes and issues and will be made available to all those concerned
with the industry and it is our intention to publish this information
online. The accreditation process itself will broaden its focus
to include the new industry agreement and subsequent BBPA code.
Reporting
A new website will list all companies with codes
and display them. We will then report and track all complaints,
investigations, breaches, resolutions and where applicable, accreditation
removal, in an open and transparent way. We are considering a
section where companies can get credit for positive innovations
in their codes. Prospective lessees/tenants (or their professional
advisors) will be able to view this site before concluding the
deal on a pub
Governance
BIIBAS consists of two main committees, operating
under clear codes of conduct. The steering group, consisting of
eight members from across industry, which sets policy, will be
chaired by Johnny Johnston, a very experienced businessman, licensee
and lessee and member of BII council, with no current company
connections. The accreditation committee, with 10 members,
which reviews specific codes, will be chaired by James Brewster,
chief executive of Licensed Trade Charity and Licensed Victuallers
School. James is an experienced business man from the catering
and hospitality industry, who understands commercial issues and
is not specifically connected to pubcos, tenants or the BII. The
committee membership will be broadened to ensure it is more representative,
including the IPC voice.
Removal of accreditation
We also intend to strengthen our response to
non-compliance. Persistent code breaches will result in removal
of accreditation. This is likely to be measured as both repetition
of a particular non compliant practice or, that the cumulative
picture exceeds an agreed ratio, benchmarked with other industries.
Initial research suggests a figure of between 2% and 5% to be
normal
7 December 2009
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