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As Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Beer Group – an enviable task I know – I have this week secured an important debate in Parliament covering beer and pubs. This debate is particularly timely with the Budget fast approaching on 11 March.

Beer in the UK is a home-grown manufacturing success story, represented in all parts of the UK. 80% of the beer that is brewed by this country’s fantastic brewers is consumed here. Beer and pubs support almost 900,000 jobs and the sector provides £23bn in value to the economy.

The numbers are impressive but there’s so much more to beer and pubs than figures alone. The great British pub is one of our most loved national institutions and the heart of so many communities. Over 15 million of us go to the pub once a week. The pub has evolved and adapted with the times, but they remain a gathering place, sometimes referred to as ‘the original social network’. Often though they are now much more – the local post office, the local greengrocer, the local library and much more besides.

The link between beer and pubs is inextricable. Seven in ten of the alcoholic drinks sold in pubs are beers. A thriving brewing sector is intimately entwined with successful local pubs. It might not be Dry January any more, but it’s still worth highlighting that not only are pubs the home of responsible drinking, but beer is also on average the lowest-strength alcoholic drink available at the bar, with an increasingly wide range of zero alcohol alternatives too.

Supporting beer and pubs might seem like a no-brainer, but it’s an undeniable fact that the British pubs sit under an onerous tax burden. Every pub pays an average of £142,000 a year in taxes and one pound in every three spent in pubs goes on tax. Happily, successive Conservative Governments have taken action to limit the impact of beer duty on pubs. Since abolishing the hated beer duty escalator in 2013, Conservative Governments have cut and frozen beer duty; saving pubgoers millions of pounds.

This action is extremely welcome, but beer duty remains high, especially when compared to our beer-brewing European neighbours. Duty here is, for example, eleven times higher than it is in Germany. Britain pays 40% of all the beer duty paid in the EU, but we drink only 12% of the beer. So, while Conservative Governments have backed this great British industry, there is more that can be done.

What’s more, taking action to limit beer duty increases would send a positive signal to the 250,000 supporters of the Long Live the Local petition, not to mention the 25,000 individual pubs who are backing the campaign. Although a cut or freeze in beer duty is in theory a cost to HM Treasury, evidence suggests that keeping costs down for brewers and consumers actually leads to more money going into Government coffers. To give a recent example – excise revenue from beer is up £250 million compared to forecasts since 2017/18, thanks to the boost to beer and pubs following freezes in duty in the 2017 and 2018 Budgets.

Of course, it’s not just beer duty that presents issues for pubs – the business rates system continues to present challenges. The recently announced extension of the pub-specific relief, knocking £1,000 of the bill off pubs with a rateable value of less than £100,000 will help a huge number of premises, as will the 50% reduction in business rates bills for certain businesses. But for pubs the burden of business rates remains particularly acute – pubs account for 2.8% of all business rates, despite only accounting for 0.5% of rate-paying business turnover. That amounts to an overpayment of £500m every single year.

I hope the Government will hear the messages of gratitude for actions taken in the past, but also of the need for continued support to ensure that brewing and pubs remain viable for many years to come.

Mike Wood is the Conservative MP for Dudley South & Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Beer Group.

This blog post is part of a cross-party series on Vuelio’s political blog Point of Order which publishes insight and opinion to help public affairs, policy and comms professionals stay ahead of political change and connect with those who campaign on the issues they care about. To find out more or contribute, get in touch with Vuelio Politics.

When senior doctors started to reduce their working hours in significant numbers, in response to changes in tax paid on their pensions, what would otherwise be a niche and complicated pensions issue, suddenly became a general election focus with the Prime Minister wading in, promising to fix it. 
 
New lower thresholds (unadjusted for inflation since 2014) when public sector workers start to pay tax on their pension contributions have seen higher earners across the public sector receiving staggering tax bills. As a result of having crossed either their annual or lifetime allowances, doctors are reducing their hours, or simply retiring, impacting on the NHS’s readiness to respond to annual winter pressures, forcing the Government to intervene.  
 
While the Government has found a temporary sticking plaster on this issue with a view to finding a longer-term solution for clinicians, the same problem extends right across the public sector, not least to policing.  
 
With 21,000 fewer officers and 600 police stations closed since 2010, policing has been hammered in recent years. We’re already seeing record numbers voluntarily leaving policing. So if the Government is to have any hope of delivering its uplift in policing numbers without chronic growing pains, it needs to hold onto every last bit of experience and leadership it can. 
 
The Superintendent ranks and above are likely to breach the annual allowance if an officer has more than 20 years’ service, due to the structuring of police pensions in the last 10 years of an officers’ service, which is unique to Police pensions. Senior Superintendents and all ranks above, will breach the annual allowance by ordinary pension growth alone, without there even being any pay rises.  
 
Superintendent, Chief Superintendent, Assistant Chief Constable, Deputy Chief Constable and Chief Constable ranks have the potential to routinely breach the allowance, with some senior officers unbelievably receiving yearly tax bills that are greater than their annual salary. 
 
In a letter to the Chair of the Police Pensions Scheme Advisory Board sent just in the last few days, the Policing Minister argues that while he is open to reform of pensions in policing, their case ‘does not demonstrate evidence of recruitment and retention problems and a resulting impact on operational service delivery.’ 
 
Unlike doctors, police officers cannot reduce their hours or withdraw their service to mitigate the impact of such tax bills, so it is much harder to demonstrate the impact on the public, and I suspect the Minister fully understands that. 
 
Research undertaken by the National Police Chiefs Council shows that applications for Chief Officer jobs are reducing, as is the tenure served in those roles. My own force, West Yorkshire Police, had just one applicant apply on the previous two occasions they needed to fill the post of Chief Constable and Northumbria Police has recently had to open recruitment three times to recruit a Chief Constable. 
 
While there will be a variety of reasons for this, the Police Superintendents’ Association conducted a survey in 2018 that revealed that almost four in ten of their members said pension issues were increasing their intention to leave, with 56% of respondents attributing this specifically to the annual allowance. 
 
The Treasury is conducting a review in to this issue with a view to shaping the next Budget on 11 March, so I have asked the Policing Minister to look specially at how these perverse tax disincentives can be reformed, not least because it would seem Police Forces themselves are paying these tax bills for individuals, who are reimbursed by the Home Office, who are reimbursed by the Treasury, in order to square-off contributions to HMRC. 
 
In order to pay the money back in the long term, officers are realistically having to hand significant chucks of their pensions back upon retirement, in order to settle all the accumulated Annual Allowance taxes. There must be a better way of structuring police pensions to avoid this financial merry-go-round, by simply giving senior police officers parity with the solutions offered to NHS consultants.  
 
Police pensions need to be much clearer for both officers themselves and the public purse, but more importantly ensuring that we do not haemorrhage experience and leadership within policing at a time when we can least afford it. 
 
Holly Lynch is the Labour MP for Halifax.  
 
This blog post is part of a cross-party series on Vuelio’s political blog Point of Order which publishes insight and opinion to help public affairs, policy and comms professionals stay ahead of political change and connect with those who campaign on the issues they care about. To find out more or contribute, get in touch with Vuelio Politics. 

The PRCA has welcomed the Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists’ endorsement of its Public Affairs Code in its latest guidance, following an industry-wide consultation.

The Registrar accepted the PRCA’s central recommendation that the majority of industry codes of conduct declared on the statutory register were not relevant; and announced what amounts to a clampdown on companies’ own self-enforced codes.

In his commentary that ‘the current codes of conduct produced by the PRCA’s Public Affairs Board for members are relevant’, the Registrar, Harry Rich singled out the PRCA’s Code as the only one endorsed without reservation.

The new guidance notes:

A relevant code of conduct must go beyond setting out general, good professional behaviour and must contain provisions that are of particular relevance to the way that consultant lobbying activity is carried out.

A relevant code must also include oversight or control by an external process or membership body.

A code of conduct that is written for individuals can be declared by an organisation only if every employee subscribes to that code.

PRCA Director General, Francis Ingham MPRCA, said: ‘We welcome the Registrar’s confidence in the PRCA Public Affairs Code. It is already the gold standard of ethical public affairs practice, and this guidance promotes its status even further, as the only Code endorsed in all circumstances as ‘relevant’.

Ingham added: ‘We are also delighted that the Registrar agrees with us that industry codes should apply to entire consultancies, rather than to just a handful of individuals within the organisation – often a blatant attempt to workaround the spirit of the lobbying legislation. This change will support public trust in lobbying by enabling members of the public to distinguish between the organisations that subscribe to ethical standards and those that do not.’

‘There is now a clear challenge to the small minority of the industry who choose not to be held accountable to the highest standards. As of March 31, they will no longer be able to hide behind irrelevant or self-enforced Codes. They will therefore have to choose between observing the mainstream standards of the industry or making public their choice to be unregulated and unaccountable’ the PRCA’s Director General added.

The new guidance will be in place from July 2020 and all registrants must make changes to their internal process by 31st March 2020 to reflect the updated guidance.

Any organisation must join the Register if they conduct the business of consultant lobbying as defined by the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act 2014 or for more information contact the PRCA.

I recognise the huge importance that International Trade has for businesses and families across the UK, but for many people a Select Committee can seem remote from their everyday working and family lives.

Parliament and its inner workings must be more accessible and representative, so as Chair I would very much like to take the Committee around the UK to hear from businesses, industry and communities in as many constituencies as possible.

I will also welcome ideas and feedback from colleagues and I plan to hold internal surgeries on a regular basis to meet with members and discuss the issues in their constituencies, effectively crowdsourcing topics for investigation and discussion in committee, taking a wider approach to ensure the committee is addressing priorities for the people and holding public engagement sessions in schools and organisations around the UK.

I also believe there are significant opportunities to raise the profile of the Committee and work much more closely with colleagues in the devolved nations. Good work is being done by talented individuals across the UK and we would be remiss if we were to ignore opportunities and best practise from elsewhere.

At the outset, I would develop a clear communications plan and strategic roadmap for raising the profile of the Committee and its work, including providing bespoke information on the work the committee is doing tailored to different sectors and areas and work with the education services of all the Parliaments in the UK to deliver an engagement strategy.

Building on the outstanding reports and existing work of the Committee to ensure all reports are complete, I would ensure a focus on fair, transparent and environmentally responsible trade. Diversity in trade is essential so I will ensure that the Committee focuses on both goods and service sectors and investigate how the UK Government and its agencies are supporting SMEs and minority groups to trade internationally.

I am very interested in inter-generational trade and I would like to see the Committee looking at different demographics, whether young people or silver entrepreneurs are engaged in trade and how we can do more to support them.

In keeping with my approach to making the Committee more representative and transparent, I will produce a regular newsletter from the committee to members and external organisations and stakeholders to share our work and raise the profile of the committee.

As founder and chair of the All Party Group on Deaths Abroad and Consular Services I’ve proven that, with no secretariat or staff other than my constituency team, I’ve been a very proactive and determined chair that has made sure families from many constituencies have been represented and supported to give evidence.

Aside from my work in TV and politics I’ve spent a number of years out of politics, working first for the US Dept of State advising on trade, business and political policy and then three years in the energy sector. In both roles I worked internationally and have seen first-hand how important international trade policy and relations are.

I have led on Trade policy for the SNP, working with a broad range of international trade bodies and organisations. My team and I built strong relationships with key individuals and organisations and I would relish the opportunity to further develop those as Chair of the Committee.

This blog post is part of a cross-party series on Vuelio’s political blog Point of Order which publishes insight and opinion to help public affairs, policy and comms professionals stay ahead of political change and connect with those who campaign on the issues they care about. To find out more or contribute, get in touch with Vuelio Politics.