, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Renters (Reform) Bill: Evidence Session
The beginning of November.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Renters (Reform) Bill: Evidence Session
Eventually, the UK Government asked us whether we'd be interested in being part of the amendments on blanket bans and so on. But that undoubtedly came out of an iterative conversation between the various officials.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Renters (Reform) Bill: Evidence Session
Alun, if I could just add to that, please, if you don't mind, one of the reasons that we were interested in this Bill was not because of these blanket bans that we're discussing now, actually. It was because of the no-fault eviction point that was being made…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Renters (Reform) Bill: Evidence Session
I'm very happy for them to. Gareth, do you want to come in on there?
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Renters (Reform) Bill: Evidence Session
Yes, because what we're doing is basically lining up with the renting homes Act, and we haven't had that challenge for that. Here in Wales we take a slightly different view, so the potential penalties that authorities in England can levy will be larger, but…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Renters (Reform) Bill: Evidence Session
Forgive me, sorry—I didn't mean to interrupt you there. Yes, landlords and agents will be made aware through Rent Smart Wales in our usual update process, and the relevant guidance for all parties will be updated to reflect the changes, assuming the LCM…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Renters (Reform) Bill: Evidence Session
Yes, so we'll be—.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Renters (Reform) Bill: Evidence Session
Yes, so we haven't done a specific assessment of the retrospectivity—if that's a word—of these provisions, but there's an obvious and pressing need for them to be retrospective, because otherwise they wouldn't apply to existing occupation contracts or any…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Renters (Reform) Bill: Evidence Session
Only because very large numbers of bodies operate in both, Adam. So, they wouldn't have specifically looked at Welsh-only individuals, just to be really clear, but quite a lot of them operate across England and Wales. So, as entities operating across England…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Renters (Reform) Bill: Evidence Session
Some of the stakeholder work across England and Wales would have fed into the original consultation process for this, and there would have been nothing stopping any Welsh individual or organisation responding to that. But I think we're basically putting this…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Renters (Reform) Bill: Evidence Session
No, we haven't specifically consulted on this context, although we have consulted widely on anti-discrimination measures for quite a considerable period of time, both before the renting homes Act, during the implementation period and post-implementation…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Renters (Reform) Bill: Evidence Session
Yes, we think it's sufficient for the purpose. And, as I say, because of the way that the renting homes Act works already in Wales, we think the impact of that is minimal—it's the policy aims achieved with minimal other impact. That's why we've decided to…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Renters (Reform) Bill: Evidence Session
There's no Wales-specific regulatory impact assessment.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Renters (Reform) Bill: Evidence Session
Thank you, Adam, for the question. That's because our new Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016, which is now in force, already has provisions in it to make sure that landlords are able to make tenants aware of any changes, so that's a normal and routine part of the…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Renters (Reform) Bill: Evidence Session
Yes. So, just to be really clear, what happens is the UK Government asks us whether we want the provisions to—. So, provisions are tabled for England, we're approached to see whether we would like to work with them to make sure that there is a provision for…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Renters (Reform) Bill: Evidence Session
Well, as part of the process, what happens is that the officials do an analysis of the amendments, they look to see how that impacts Welsh law, and then I'm asked whether I'm happy that we can recommend an LCM through the process. So, suppose that is a…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Renters (Reform) Bill: Evidence Session
I think it was in November, but we weren't sure that we needed to do a legislative consent order for just this or other things until, I believe it was, sometime in January, but one of the officials can probably confirm that better than I.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Renters (Reform) Bill: Evidence Session
Yes. I'm sure the officials can elaborate a bit more on that, but, obviously, our officials work closely with UK Government officials on all matters relating to housing, leasehold and so on. This is one of the ragged edges of democracy—I can't speak this…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Renters (Reform) Bill: Evidence Session
Well, it doesn't, does it? But it's an opportunity to put a discrete policy platform, which we have long wanted to do, in place rapidly. I didn't want to disadvantage the people of Wales in that. As I already said in answer to the Chair at the beginning of…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Renters (Reform) Bill: Evidence Session
Morning.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Renters (Reform) Bill: Evidence Session
—I'm acutely aware of the difficulties of scrutiny of UK legislation. We're very keen to make sure that we can give as much scrutiny as we're able to, given the circumstances, and I absolutely am not really arguing with you about that, but I think, given the…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Renters (Reform) Bill: Evidence Session
I'm not really arguing with you about that, Alun—
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Renters (Reform) Bill: Evidence Session
That's why I'm here this morning, Alun. So, I absolutely agree, I think we need to make sure that we have opportunities for as much scrutiny as is humanly possibly in the circumstances. But I do feel very strongly that the people of Wales should have this put…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Renters (Reform) Bill: Evidence Session
Well, not as the legislative programme pertains, but obviously we're at the mercy of what the UK Government brings forward, so it's opportunistic, if you like.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Renters (Reform) Bill: Evidence Session
Well, that may well be the case, but we do have to have regard to our own legislative handbook in bringing it forward. And as I already said in answer to the Chair, that's not the only consideration; the other consideration is that we need to have the policy…
