The government has appointed Fiona Dickie as Pubs Code
Adjudicator (PCA).
The PCA has
responsibility for enforcing the statutory Pubs Code, which
governs the relationship between large pub-owning businesses and
their tied tenants in England and Wales.
As PCA, Ms Dickie
will have powers to arbitrate individual disputes about breaches
of the Pubs Code and market rent only options – when tenants opt
to only pay rent to the pub company, rather than have any further
ties. She will also be able to investigate suspected breaches of
the code by pub owning businesses and impose sanctions, including
financial penalties, when there is non-compliance.
The PCA also
provides advice and guidance about the code and leads a team
based in Birmingham.
About Fiona Dickie
Fiona Dickie was appointed as the Deputy Pubs Code Adjudicator
(DPCA) in
November 2017 and reappointed in October 2019. Fiona was called
to the Bar in 1993. She has been a Vice President of the
Valuation Tribunal for England from 2009 until 2020 and was
appointed Judge of First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) in 2013
(after serving as a Lawyer Chair of its predecessor tribunal from
2006). She was also appointed as a Road User Charging Adjudicator
in 2004. Fiona has been a mediator in civil disputes since 2005
and a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators since
2018.
The Small Business, Enterprise
and Employment (SBEE) Act 2015, requires the Secretary of
State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to introduce a
statutory Pubs Code and to appoint a Pubs Code Adjudicator. The
code governs the relationship between large pub-owning businesses
(those that own 500 or more tied pubs in England and Wales) and
their tied tenants.
Fiona Dickie will take up her appointment for a 4-year term when
the current PCA’s
term ends in May 2020 and she will step down as DPCA at that point.
This appointment is regulated by the Commissioner for Public
Appointmentsand has been made in line with the Governance Code for Public
Appointments.
