Chamber and committees

Joshua Davies, do you have any comments on the balance between the rights of tenants and the rights of landlords?

We move to our final area of questioning. I bring in Miles Briggs on implementation.

Does anybody want to pick that up? I will go to Anna Evans and then to Deborah Hay.

That brings our questions to a conclusion. It has been very helpful to hear from the witnesses this morning. Before I suspend the meeting, I invite Mark Griffin to declare his interest.

I welcome our second panel of witnesses: Lyndsay Clelland is a policy officer at Age Scotland; Dan Wilson Craw is the deputy chief executive of Generation Rent; Aoife Deery is a senior social justice policy officer at Citizens Advice Scotland; Ellie Gomersall is the president of the National Union of Students Scotland; Eilidh Keay is a tenant of a rented property; and Emma Saunders is the national organiser of Living Rent.

We turn to questions. There is no need for you to operate your microphones. We will do that for you. I have a couple of general opening questions. The first is about your thoughts on the Scottish Government’s statement that the bill

“contains a package of reforms which will help ensure people have a safe, secure, and affordable place to live.”

I would be interested to hear your thoughts in general on the extent to which the bill will deliver those aims. Who would like to go first, or shall I pick on someone? I will call Eilidh Keay then Aoife Deery.

Thanks for that bit of detail.

Dan Wilson Craw and Emma Saunders have indicated that they want to respond, too.

Alex, do you have anything to add?

You have inspired a supplementary question. The committee is keeping an eye on petition PE1778, which is about the landlords register scheme. The petitioner has stated that the scheme is “not fit for purpose” and that there is no scrutiny of whether an applicant is a “fit and proper person”. The petitioner explains that

“there are no checks carried out by any relevant Authority”

on, for example, whether the landlord is in possession of an up-to-date gas safety certificate for the property, unless a lack of proper documentation is brought to the attention of the local authority.

Would it be helpful to address the “fit and proper person” aspect in the bill? Deborah Hay, you are nodding, so I will go to you.

That is great. We will now talk about the subject of rent. Pam Gosal has a couple of questions on that.