Chamber and committees

My last question might be more substantive. What are the links between evictions from private rented properties and homelessness in your areas? Will the provisions around homelessness prevention potentially lead to better outcomes, fewer evictions and less pressure on your services?

Before asking my questions, I declare a relevant interest, in that I was previously an owner of a private rented property until July last year.

I have a couple of questions on the provisions on evictions. First, what might be the potential impact on tenants and landlords of the proposal in the bill that the tribunal will have to consider whether to delay an eviction?

The question was about the requirement for the tribunal to consider whether to delay an eviction and the impact that that might have on individual tenants and landlords.

My second question is about how damages for illegal evictions are calculated. The bill changes that so that the risk of challenge and penalty will be higher for landlords who evict illegally. Do you have any comments on those changes? Is that a method of potentially improving some poor practice that might exist in the sector when it comes to illegal evictions?

I have a few questions about evictions. The first one is about the proposal to require the tribunals to consider whether to delay an eviction as standard with every application. Do witnesses support that change or not, and for what reasons?

Do the other witnesses have anything to add before I move on?

Good morning. We have talked about the ONS data, but do you have any comments on the availability of data beyond that? Is there sufficient data out there to inform the policy decisions that we are making?

Specifically on that proposal to give local authorities the power to request information on rent, to what extent will that information be necessary to make decisions about whether to implement a rent control area? How long will it take from the point of having the power to collect that data to be in a position to make a decision on whether to implement a rent control area?

On the publication of that data, any tenant or prospective tenant can go to the national website, put in an address and check the landlord registration. Should the data that is collected on rent be published in the same way?

I apologise, convener. Before my contribution, I should have declared an interest to let members know that, until July last year, I owned a private rented property in the North Lanarkshire Council area.