Hansard

Good morning, convener. I am pleased to present the Tenancy Deposit Schemes (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2019 for the committee’s scrutiny. If the regulations are approved, they will strengthen the principal regulations—the Tenancy Deposit Schemes (Scotland) Regulations 2011—and ensure that tenancy deposit schemes continue to work within a robust operating framework. The original objectives for bringing forward tenancy deposit regulations and approved tenancy deposit schemes were “to reduce the number of unfairly withheld tenancy deposits .. ensure that deposits are safeguarded throughout the duration of the tenancy” and “ensure that deposits are returned quickly and fairly, particularly where there is a dispute over the return of the deposit ... To tenant or landlord.” Our tenancy deposit regime was established by the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006, which requires ministers to approve schemes before they can protect deposits. Three tenancy deposit schemes were approved by ministers in Scotland in 2012. The 2006 act also obliges ministers to review each scheme from time to time and gives them the power, once they have done so, to ensure that any scheme is revised. When the schemes were approaching the end of their fifth year of operation, I asked my officials to conduct a review of the schemes and the operating framework and conditions for the protection of tenancy deposits. The review sought views independently from those tenants and landlords who have used the tenancy deposit schemes and from the schemes themselves. The results of the review were published in December 2018 and I was pleased that it found that the principal regulations continued to provide “a robust regulatory framework”. As expected, the review also found that the regulations required minor updates, not least to keep abreast of our private rented sector reforms. The regulations that are before the committee today will make improvements to the operation of the tenancy deposit schemes. Those changes respond directly to the review and address best practice, increase efficiency and take account of new legislation, for example by ensuring that information about sanctions is provided by the schemes to the tenant when a landlord has not met the requirement to lodge the deposit within 30 working days, helping us to strengthen enforcement; requiring the landlord to provide the tenant with certain information when the deposit is being paid in instalments; expediting repayment of a protected deposit when the landlord does not wish to retain any part of it; and ensuring that a landlord is not required to pay a deposit into the schemes when a private residential tenancy has been ended and the deposit repaid to the tenant prior to the date by which landlords must lodge the deposit. Not all of those improvements will require legislation. It is to the credit of the approved schemes that, through lessons learned since start-up in 2012, they can evidence improved performance and internal changes. In compliance with the 2006 act, I have asked the three tenancy deposit schemes to submit revised procedures to me to ensure that they comply with the amended regulations. I hope to approve the revised schemes soon after the amendment regulations come into force. Thank you, convener. I am happy to answer questions on the regulations.