The Act Arbitration Section 15: Submission of dispute to adjudicator
41.This section provides a statutory right of arbitration for Scottish Pubs Code disputes for tied pub tenants and pub-owning business. Such arbitrations will be “statutory arbitrations” as set out in section 16 of the Arbitration (Scotland) Act 2010. (Section 16 of the 2010 Act sets out certain rules that apply to statutory arbitrations, although the section had not been brought into force at the time of Royal Assent of this Act.) Section 17 of the 2010 Act, which is in force, allows Scottish Ministers to make further provision about the handling of statutory arbitrations.
42.A dispute may be referred to arbitration only if the tenant has first notified the pub-owning business that they consider there has been a failure to comply with the code. The notification must be given within 6 months, beginning on the day the alleged failure occurred (or the last day of a continuing failure, or the day when the tenant became aware, or could reasonably have become aware, of the alleged failure). There is then a window, beginning 21 days after the business is notified of the alleged failure and ending 4 months later, within which either party (tenant or pub-owning business) may refer the dispute, to arbitration. The 21-day period is to allow the parties a reasonable time to try to resolve the dispute without the need for arbitration. The six-month and four-month limits ensure that any alleged failures to comply with the code are addressed reasonably promptly. The four and six months periods are always measured in calendar months, so if either begins on the 29th, 30th, or 31st of a month, and there is no corresponding date four or six months later, then the period ends on the last day of that later month (e.g. a four month period would end on 28th February if the period began on 31st October).