Housing and Planning Bill — House of Lords, 2016-04-11
Topic: Housing
Natalie Evans (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, during the passage of the Bill we have debated extensively the question of who shall have access to the database, in which form and for what purposes. The noble Baroness, Lady Bakewell, and the noble Lords, Lord Shipley and Lord Kennedy, have sought, through Amendments 22 to 25, to require that tenants or potential tenants should have access to the database, that the Secretary of State should be able to disclose information held in non-anonymised form, and that local authorities may use the information held on the database for the protection of tenants Giving tenants, or potential tenants, access to the database would be fine if its purpose was to blacklist landlords and to drive them out of business, but that is not its purpose. The proposed database is primarily for the purpose of ensuring that those landlords and property agents who have committed banning order offences, or who have received two or more civil penalties as an alternative to prosecution for such offences, can be monitored by local authorities to ensure future compliance with the law, and, where necessary, those authorities can target enforcement against them. The database will help local authorities drive up standards in their areas and ensure that those landlords entered on to it raise their game so that their properties are safe and well managed for the benefit of tenants As with penalty points on a driving licence, a person will remain on the database for a specified period—a minimum of two years. Also as with someone who has incurred penalty points, continuing to breach the law may result in a ban. While it is important, as I said, that people who commit banning order offences should be liable to be monitored through their entry on to the database, this does not mean that the public at large should have a right to know about those offences if they are not so serious as to warrant the local authority immediately obtaining a banning order. Again, there is an analogy with driving offences because there is no right for the public at large to know whether a person has received penalty points on their licence. Indeed, allowing such access to the database would arguably breach the landlord’s human rights by making sensitive personal information about their convictions publicly available and effectively banning them from operating without an independent tribunal determining whether they should be banned. Amendment 26 in the names of the noble Lords, Lord Kennedy and Lord Beecham, is unnecessary. Under existing provisions for HMOs, which we are proposing to strengthen through Part 5 of the Bill, a local authority can grant a licence only if it is satisfied that the proposed licence holder is a fit and proper person. In doing so, it must have regard to, among other matters, whether the applicant has contravened housing law or been convicted of certain criminal offences such as those relating to violence, drugs or fraud. These offences that the authority must have regard to will likely be banning order offences for which a person can be entered on the database. It follows that a person who has been entered on to the database could be refused an HMO licence I should make it clear that just because a landlord has a conviction or received financial penalties under the new regime that will not automatically mean that they are an unfit person and not able to hold an HMO licence. It would, of course, depend on the nature of the offence, the circumstances surrounding it and whether the landlord was a prolific offender. Indeed, if the conviction or financial penalty was in respect of a minor infringement which had subsequently been put right, it would be disproportionate to refuse that person an HMO licence There is no blanket rule excluding persons who have criminal convictions or received financial penalties from holding HMO licences. It will depend on the individual circumstances of the case. However, this amendment would introduce such a blanket rule, even though such a person could continue to operate other types of private rented properties as the database is not a register of banned persons. Provisions are made in the Bill already to deal with HMOs operated by people subject to banning orders, namely that neither they nor any agent may hold such a licence. That is of course right because such a person has been banned from operating as a residential landlord As I have said, local authorities will be able to use the information on the database for the protection of tenants by using it to assist with exercising their functions under the Housing Act 2004 and to investigate contraventions of housing law and promote compliance with such law. In particular, authorities can use the information held to decide whether to apply for a banning order against a person entered on the database, whether or not he or she holds an HMO licence. It will then be for local authorities to decide whether to publicise information on those subject to banning orders in their local area, considering whether such publication can be justified as the most proportionate means of ensuring that banning orders are successfully enforced and that tenants in the area are properly protected These amendments would effectively result in many cases of landlords being put out of business, or at least suffering harmful reputations that would make trading more difficult, without any case being made out by the local authority to an independent tribunal to stop them trading through the banning order procedure. I hope that, with that explanation, noble Lords will not press their amendments. On the question from the noble Lord, Lord Kennedy, about how information on the database will be disseminated to devolved Administrations, we will consider taking powers to facilitate this and will explore that further with the devolved Administrations.