Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he took to take into account the rules on conflicts of interest set out in (a) Code of Practice for Ministerial Appointments to Public Bodies, (b) Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors Rules of Conduct and (c) Chartered Institute of Arbitrators Code of Professional and Ethical Conduct in the recruitment process for the recently-appointed Pubs Code Adjudicator; and if he will make a statement.

• Paul Newby was appointed in accordance with the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments’ (OCPA) Code of Practice for Ministerial Appointments to Public Bodies.
• His prior experience of the pubs sector as a surveyor and arbitrator and his ability to forge trusted relationships with both tenants and PubCos is an asset, not a conflict of interest.
• The appointment panel discussed conflicts of interest with him at interview. The Panel was satisfied there were no conflicts of interest, and put this advice to ministers.
• Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and Chartered Institute of Arbitrators membership were not requirements for this post, so the documents referred to are not directly relevant to the appointment process.