Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the extension for two months of the ban on evictions announced on 5 June 2020, if he will grant judges a general discretion to consider the impact of covid-19 in possession cases before any future decision to end eviction suspension measures; and if he will make a statement.

The Government remains committed to bringing forward legislation to deliver its planned reforms to?enhance renters' security, including by abolishing so-called 'no-fault' evictions.?However, the proposals for tenancy reform would represent the largest change to renting in 30 years and it is only right that these reforms are taken forward in a considered manner.

In the interim, the Government will continue to work with the judiciary, legal representatives and the advice sector on arrangements, including new rules, to ensure that when the moratorium on evictions ends, the courts are better able to address the need for appropriate protection of all parties, including those shielding from coronavirus. This is to ensure that judges will have all the information necessary to make just decisions in the current framework and that the most vulnerable tenants will get the help they need.

The Master of the Rolls, as head of civil justice, has convened a judiciary-led, cross-sector working group to consider and to address so far as is practicable, matters affecting litigants and the courts when the present stay on possession proceedings is lifted.