Meeting of the Parliament 23 September 2025 [Draft]
I welcome the Scottish Government’s commitment to full implementation of Awaab’s law for both private and social landlords. That will help some of my constituents who are trying to ensure that their homes are not putting the lives of their children in danger because of damp and mould.
However, we can go further to ensure that people have confidence that issues of damp and mould will be identified correctly and acted on quickly. My amendments 294 to 297 are designed to strengthen the Government’s commitment by tightening up the conditional language and ensuring robust and enforceable standards for tackling damp and mould in Scotland’s homes.
Like other amendments in the group, my amendments seek to tighten timescales for dealing with damp and mould when it is found in homes. I have stipulated that ministers must publish statutory guidance, approved by the Parliament through the affirmative procedure, on the timescale in which a landlord must respond to a resident’s complaint of damp or mould and on the timescale for effectively dealing with damp or mould when it is found.
Clear, enforceable timescales are essential for protecting tenants’ health and wellbeing. Linking that to statutory guidance that is subject to parliamentary approval would ensure the accountability and transparency of that process. Voting in favour of the amendments would close any loopholes in the current wording and guarantee that action is not left to landlords’ discretion.
Amendment 295 would require ministers to publish statutory guidance—again, to be approved by Parliament—defining what constitutes a significant level of damp and mould that would trigger the legal requirement for landlords to act. The current wording provides that, as long as a property is substantially free from damp and mould, it meets the tolerable standard. However, one person’s view of something that is substantially free from damp and mould will vary wildly from another’s. The amendment would give tenants and landlords clarity on when action is required.
I accept that there is current guidance on levels of damp and mould in homes, but amendment 295 would allow ministers to ensure that the law is robust and that tenants are not left in unsafe or unhealthy conditions due to that threshold being perceived to be vague.
Amendment 294 stipulates that ministers must publish statutory guidance—again, to be approved by Parliament—setting out the required level of qualification for inspectors who determine the presence and severity of damp and mould. That would ensure that inspections would be carried out by competent, qualified professionals, and it would protect tenants from inadequate or inconsistent assessments.
We have heard over and over from tenants—I am sure that many MSPs will have heard this at their surgeries—about those who come to assess damp or mould in people’s homes. The tenants are told to spray it with disinfectant, open a window or cover it up with damp-proof paint as if, all of a sudden, that will fix what are real, substantive, structural issues related to dampness. Specifying the required level of qualification for inspectors would go some way towards giving residents the reassurance that they need that their complaints about damp and mould will be treated appropriately.
My group of amendments come as a package, and they represent practical steps to ensure that Awaab’s law is implemented in full with clear standards and robust protections for tenants. They would help to deliver safe, healthy homes for everyone in Scotland and ensure that our legislation is both effective and enforceable. They would help my constituents and tenants throughout Scotland to have confidence in the laws that are designed to protect them and their children from ill health simply because of the homes that they happen to live in.