Renters’ Rights Bill

Lord Hacking Excerpts

Wednesday 14th May 2025 Lords Chamber

Government Amendment 234 to Clause 88(1)(a) expands the clause to allow the information contained in the database to be shared with the Secretary of State where they are not the operator of the database. As the noble Baroness, Lady Scott, indicated, this is a technical and minor amendment to ensure that the Secretary of State has access to the information on the database if they are not the database operator in accordance with Clause 87(3). I will that amendment when we reach it.

[Lord Hacking (Lab)]

Before the Minister sits down— I am probably breaking the rules, but I do so for very good reason—I want to state to the Committee that that she was quite right on Amendment 237, and I was quite wrong.

[Baroness Thornhill (LD)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for her response. I absolutely accept that my amendments were pushing at the boundaries. However, at their heart is protecting tenants from being evicted by a landlord who is acting unlawfully, almost as a matter of principle.

However, I accept that the Minister is confident that the Bill as it stands should drive compliance and that, therefore, my amendments will be unnecessary. My answer to that is that only time will tell. That leads us to group 13, where we will talk about reviews and why we need them. I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Scott, who articulated some concerns and felt that maybe we could open a dialogue on this issue. For now, I beg leave to withdraw my amendment.