Contents
- Attendance
- Subordinate Legislation
- European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018
Subordinate Legislation
First-tier Tribunal for Scotland Housing and Property Chamber (Incidental Provisions) Regulations 2019 [Draft]
Good morning and welcome to the Justice Committee’s fourth meeting in 2019. We have apologies from Liam McArthur.
Agenda item 1 is consideration of the draft First-tier Tribunal for Scotland Housing and Property Chamber (Incidental Provisions) Regulations 2019, which is an affirmative instrument. I welcome Ash Denham, Minister for Community Safety, and her officials from the Scottish Government: Gaynor Davenport, housing services policy unit; and Kirsten Simonnet-Lefevre, directorate for legal services.
I refer members to paper 1, which is a note by the clerk, and invite the minister to make a short opening statement.
Good morning. I am pleased to be here to discuss two fairly technical instruments that will make the housing and property chamber of the First-tier Tribunal operate more efficiently, in line with the original policy intentions, to deliver the benefits of specialism, consistency and accessibility. That will also deliver improved access to justice for both tenants and landlords in the private rented sector.
I will give a little background on the development of the housing and property chamber of the First-tier Tribunal, followed by a summary of the two related instruments that are before the committee this morning.
The housing and property chamber was established in December 2016, when two existing housing panels transferred to the First-tier Tribunal, as part of the first phase of tribunal reform. The creation of the chamber saw the transfer of civil jurisdiction in relation to most private tenancy-related cases from the sheriff court to the First-tier Tribunal in December 2017. The First-tier Tribunal can now make orders, equivalent to the decrees previously made by sheriff courts. For example, sheriffs can make orders to evict tenants, and the tribunal can now do the same.
The basis for raising a case and the matters to be taken into account also remain the same. Rules of procedure covering all types of civil cases in the new tribunal were made by virtue of the First-tier Tribunal Housing and Property Chamber (Procedure) Regulations 2017, which are also known as the 2017 rules. The court transfer was a large-scale transfer under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2014. As the First-tier Tribunal gained operational experience of handling its new case load from the sheriff court, it identified some areas where legislation could be clarified.
My officials listened carefully to the views of the First-tier Tribunal and agreed that there were some areas where legislation could be amended to provide that clarification. The statutory instruments before the committee today are a direct response to the issues raised by the tribunal.
I now turn to the instruments themselves. The committee will come on to consider the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland Housing and Property Chamber (Procedure) Amendment Regulations 2018 (SSI 2018/378), which is a negative instrument. The instrument amends the 2017 rules that set out the procedures of the housing and property chamber.
The affirmative instrument—the draft First-tier Tribunal for Scotland Housing and Property Chamber (Incidental Provisions) Regulations 2019—is needed to amend primary legislation. Subject to the approval of the committee, it will resolve some minor drafting matters and amend the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987 and the Bankruptcy and Diligence etc (Scotland) Act 2007. It makes clear the procedures to be followed to make certain orders that were previously made in the sheriff court and are now made in the First-tier Tribunal, as a consequence of the transfer of civil jurisdiction.
That is a brief overview of the two sets of regulations that are before the committee today. I will be happy to answer any questions that members may have.
Good morning, minister. On the policy objectives, the policy note says that, on 1 December 2017,
“most private rented sector civil cases transferred from the sheriff court to the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland Housing and Property Chamber.”
Does it remain the case that not all cases have been transferred? Are any such cases still considered by the sheriff court?
There are some cases still in the sheriff court, such as those on houses in multiple occupation, which would require consultation with local authorities. That is the main category that I can think of.
We had a big consultation at the time, and we decided that it was best to leave the matter with the sheriff court and not involve HMOs in the large-scale transfer. However, that is not to say that HMOs will not transfer in the longer term.
What was the rationale behind that decision? I know that there can sometimes be a lot of controversy around HMOs, but why was it decided to leave them out of the transfer?
From memory, I think that, after we had spoken to local authorities—including perhaps the city councils such as Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee—and once the issue had been broken down and we had seen what would be necessary in procedural terms, the move was considered very expensive. Local authorities already carry out intensive scrutiny at committee stage, and the move would have been quite technical and complicated and would have been out of sync with the rest of the case load that we were transferring. I should point out that although local authorities were in no rush to do that, it is not something that we have said that we will not do. We have said that we will look at the matter in the longer term.
Thank you very much.
As there are no further questions from members or comments from the minister, I move to agenda item 2, which is formal consideration of motion S5M-15300, on the affirmative instrument. The Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee has considered and reported on the instrument and has made no comment on it.
Motion moved,
That the Justice Committee recommends that the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland Housing and Property Chamber (Incidental Provisions) Regulations 2019 [draft] be approved.—[Ash Denham]
Motion agreed to.
That concludes consideration of the affirmative instrument. The committee’s report will note and confirm the outcome of the debate. Does the committee agree to delegate authority to me as convener to clear the final draft report?
Members indicated agreement.
I suspend the meeting to allow the minister and her officials to leave.
10:07 Meeting suspended.10:07 On resuming—
First-tier Tribunal for Scotland Housing and Property Chamber (Procedure) Amendment Regulations 2018 (SSI 2018/378)
We come now to agenda item 3, which is consideration of the negative instrument. I refer members to paper 2, which is a note by the clerk.
If members have no comments, does the committee agree that it wishes to make no recommendation in relation to the instrument?
Members indicated agreement.
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