Hansard

Prescription might be a technical area of law, but it undoubtedly has very direct and real human consequences. It is right that we reform the law not only to protect people from the unreasonable pursuit of debt, but to protect some of the most vulnerable people who are in the most difficult of circumstances.

Labour will therefore support the bill and what it sets out to do. However, let me be clear that it is far from perfect. We sought to amend it to make it fairer and more just, so we are disappointed that the Government did not support our amendments. That was a missed opportunity.

I want to thank the many people and organisations who have shared their insights and experience, which have undoubtedly been of use in informing the debate. I also thank the DPLR Committee and its clerks. In particular, I want to acknowledge the work of the Scottish Law Commission, which prompted the bill’s introduction in the first place.

Prescription encourages people to enforce their rights promptly before it becomes too difficult for the person or organisation that is defending the claim to gather appropriate evidence. Delay can cause the quality of evidence that is needed to defend a court case to deteriorate. Bills and bank statements can be damaged or destroyed, for example. Who here keeps their bank statements for more than a couple of years, let alone for 20 years? Witnesses might also die or become untraceable, or might simply not recall the facts.

An unduly long time limit might lead to people being pursued for debts after a length of time that anyone would consider to be unreasonable, which could leave people vulnerable to high penalties many years after they first incurred the debt, and when they might not even be aware, or have received notice, of those debts.

The Prescription (Scotland) Bill therefore makes positive changes, including the test of discoverability, which will ensure that three criteria must be fulfilled before a five-year prescription period begins. The changes are positive and will make a real difference, but that is also why the Government’s failure to back our amendments is so disappointing, because that failure renders the approach inconsistent.

As the bill stands, council tax and benefit payments that are administered by the Department for Work and Pensions are exempted from the five-year prescription period, making them subject to the 20-year period. The bill makes it clear that it is unreasonable for individuals and private companies to be subject to a 20-year prescription period. If it is unreasonable for individuals and private companies to pursue debts in those circumstances, does the Government believe that it is acceptable for state bodies, whose very existence and purpose is to support people, to be exempted from a five-year prescription period? If five years is right for Scottish social security debt, surely it is a reasonable period for United Kingdom social security debt.

That inconsistency—that double standard—at best encourages and facilitates bad practice and inefficiency from the state, which should be leading by example, not looking for get-out clauses. It is deeply unfair that people can be pursued for up to 20 years for a debt of which they were unaware, and charged interest. That is why we proposed to reduce the amount of time that local authorities have in which to notify people that they are in debt before that debt expires. We do not believe that it is too much to expect our public bodies to be able to organise their finances in that reasonable time.

Recognising that that would be a significant change to the bill, we offered a compromise. We offered the Government a delay of five years in the introduction of a five-year prescription for council tax debt—a grace period that would have given local authorities 10 years to get their affairs in order. But, no. Given the evidence, the argument for removing the exemption from the five-year prescription from council tax is compelling. That is why Citizens Advice Scotland, StepChange Debt Charity Scotland, Money Advice Scotland and the Law Society of Scotland support it.

I turn to the advice that the Government sought. Not too long ago, people were being hounded for historical poll tax debt. Why, then, is the Scottish Government enabling historical injustices to be repeated? Why is the Scottish Government taking its cues from the UK Government? Let us be clear. We are talking about debts that have been accrued through the public benefits system from, among other things, the roll-out of universal credit, so why on earth are Scottish National Party ministers seeking advice from a Government as reviled as the current Tory Government at Westminster is, in a policy area where that Government is wilfully impoverishing people, and why are they writing to ask for advice from Esther McVey—the very minister who is responsible for so much of the damage that is being done through the roll-out of universal credit? That is shocking. The SNP should be ashamed that it is taking its policy cues from that shameful Conservative Government.

To conclude, I say that the bill contains many good measures and we will be supporting it, but it is undoubtedly a missed opportunity.