EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Tied Pubs (Scotland) Act 2021 (“the Act”) and the Scottish Pubs Code Regulations 2024 (“the Code”) and come into force on 30 March 2025.

Regulation 2 repeals section 4 of the Act. Section 4(4) of the Act provides that the Scottish Ministers may repeal section 4 when they have made regulations under section 1 of the Act and appointed a person to the office of the Scottish Pubs Code Adjudicator. The Scottish Ministers made the Scottish Pubs Code Regulations 2024 on 25 June 2024 under section 1 of the Act. A person has been appointed to the office of Adjudicator.

Regulation 3(2) changes the date on which Parts 3 and 4 of the Code come into force to 30 June 2025. The remaining Parts of the Code come into force on 30 March 2025.

The effect of regulations 3(3), 3(4)(a) and 3(5) is that a pub-owning business must provide a schedule of condition, which documents the condition of repair of the premises, to the tenant at the outset of the lease. The pub-owning business is required to take that schedule of condition into account during an assessment of any maintenance or repairs in respect of the premises, and when any obligations or liabilities in respect of the condition of the premises are agreed.

Regulation 3(4)(b) provides that instead of providing any publicly available reports analysing the trading costs of tied pubs in the United Kingdom to a tenant at the outset of a lease, a pub-owning business must provide at least one publicly available report.

Regulation 3(6)(a) omits regulation 15(2)(b).

Regulation 15(2)(d) of the Code provides that a tenant may not request an MRO lease where a notice has been served bringing the lease to an end. Regulation 3(6)(b) amends that exemption so that it only applies in the final 3 months of the term of the lease

Regulation 3(7) inserts a new regulation 15A which provides that a tenant can request an MRO lease 6 months before the point at which half of the term of the lease has passed. Previously a tenant could not request an MRO lease before half of the term of the lease had passed.

Regulation 3(8) inserts a new regulation 16(3A) which provides that where a tenant has requested an MRO lease in the 6 month period before the point at which half of the term of the lease has passed, the pub-owning business is not required to agree to bring into effect the MRO lease until the halfway point of the lease.

Regulation 3(9) amends regulation 17 of the Code to create a process allowing either party to refer a market rent determination to the Adjudicator where there has been an obvious error. Regulation 3(9) also makes some further changes to regulation 17 so that the referral process is taken into account when the end of the rent assessment period is calculated.