UK-Rwanda Asylum Partnership Arrangement
Debate between Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town and Baroness Williams of Trafford(2 years ago)
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Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town
To ask Her Majesty’s Government why the UK-Rwanda asylum partnership arrangement was concluded by a Memorandum of Understanding and was not therefore subject to parliamentary scrutiny requirements under the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010.
The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Williams of Trafford) (Con)
My Lords, the UK has entered into a memorandum of understanding with Rwanda, which has now been published on GOV.UK, for the provision of an asylum partnership arrangement and to address the shared challenge of illegal migration. The duty to lay before Parliament under the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 applies only to treaties. However, the safety, security and dignity of and respect for those relocated is assured through the agreement and will be subject to monitoring. We comply fully with our legal and international obligations.
Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Lab)
The agreement will not be a treaty and it will not be enforceable. Given that the deal would end the Government’s legal obligation to certain refugee claimants and therefore reduce their rights, surely such a significant international agreement should be disclosed, debated and agreed by Parliament. Why have the Government tried to slip this agreement out as a memorandum of understanding, hindering Parliament’s ability to scrutinise it adequately? Does the Minister accept that important MoUs such as this with Rwanda that affect human rights should be routinely disclosed and debated by Parliament under the terms of the Ponsonby rule?
Baroness Williams of Trafford (Con)
My Lords, as your Lordships’ House does, there will be ample opportunity to discuss the aspects of this agreement. It complies with our international and other obligations. There will be ongoing monitoring of the agreement, and there is nothing in the United Nations refugee convention that prevents this happening.
Migration
Debate between Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town and Baroness Williams of Trafford(2 years, 6 months ago)
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Baroness Williams of Trafford (Con)
I have been fortunate to be able to discuss and debate the question of a cap on numbers with the noble Lord. He is absolutely right to say that our immigration scheme is now a whole-world scheme. It is up to us in time to be able to flex our policies to ensure that the people who live and work here are not being crowded out by others who might, in the words of the public, “take their jobs” and that we have a fair but controlled immigration system.
Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Lab)
Being Welsh, we sometimes think that we are the original Britons and I welcome everyone else to our nations. I am pleased that the Minister touched on Windrush. One of the recommendations in the lessons learned was that the Home Office should teach its staff more about celebrating Britain’s long role in welcoming people to these shores. Does she therefore accept that, if we were able to get the Migration Museum going, it could be a great resource for the sort of education that could go on for the Home Office’s staff when they have to deal with these issues?
Baroness Williams of Trafford (Con)
Nobody is keener than the people who work in the Home Office to learn the lessons of Windrush. I do a number of events with staff from all levels of the Home Office and it is the question that always comes up, because people are very keen to learn the lessons of Windrush. As I said to the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett, museums all over the country have a positive and negative slant on migration. The International Slavery Museum in my area shows the real abuse of some of the people who came to this country, willingly or unwillingly.
Police Forces: Financial Stability
Debate between Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town and Baroness Williams of Trafford(5 years, 7 months ago)
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Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Lab)
My Lords, there is a bit of a conflict. On the one hand, the NAO report is recognised and accepted but, on the other, the Home Secretary immediately says that he does not recognise the picture that it paints. But the NAO says, on its good evidence, that the Home Office,
“lacks a long-term plan for policing”,
and,
“does not know if the police system is financially sustainable”,
and does not understand the pressures on our police forces. I accept what the NAO says more than what the Home Secretary does. Will the Minister confirm that police funding has fallen by 19% in real terms since 2010-11? Will she accept that forces are finding it harder and harder to deliver an effective service?
Baroness Williams of Trafford
To address the last question first, both the Policing Minister and the Home Secretary recognise the demands on the police. They have said it before and my right honourable friend the Policing Minister said it again today. Not only is the picture of crime changing, but the police have had to deal—so bravely—with the various terrorist attacks we have had over the past year. When it comes to understanding demand, I have said before that my right honourable friend the Policing Minister visited all 43 forces in England and Wales leading up to the comprehensive settlement for 2018-19, which provided that £460 million increase. Looking forward to the next spending review, he stated in December last year that he would revisit plans to change the funding formula at the time of the next spending review. I have outlined the 2018 settlement, but in 2019-20 he will seek to maintain the protection of the broadly flat police grant, alongside the same flexibility of the precept that happened this year.
Brexit: European Union Police Databases and Extradition Arrangements
Debate between Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town and Baroness Williams of Trafford(5 years, 10 months ago)
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Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Lab)
My Lords, I beg leave to ask a Question of which I have given private notice.
The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Williams of Trafford) (Con)
My Lords, we note Mr Barnier’s comments, but we must bear in mind that this negotiation is only just beginning. We want to ensure that citizens across Europe benefit from the strongest possible security relationship between the UK and the EU after our exit, and to avoid a security gap. Our objective in negotiations will be to secure this outcome. In our view, this can be most effectively delivered through a comprehensive new internal security treaty.
Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town
My Lords, this and other matters are serious. The Government’s red lines, such as ruling out the Charter of Fundamental Rights and the CJEU, will, as Mr Barnier says, at the moment deny us access to EU databases and things such as the European arrest warrant, the security pact, which the Prime Minister has discussed, and recognition of court judgments. Given the serious nature of this and all the other issues of the negotiations, which have never been in front of this House, does the Minister agree that we should have a proper debate here on how the negotiations are going and the Government’s objectives? The debate could be on the White Paper, if it arrives on time at the beginning of July. If it is further delayed, we should nevertheless have a debate here on this range of really important issues.
Baroness Williams of Trafford
My Lords, I have on many occasions had debates on certain elements of the issues that the noble Baroness raises. I commend your Lordships’ House for the quality of our debates on such matters. I am sure that the usual channels will, as they are wont to do, make time for such a debate. The issues that she raises are political choices. None of them are insurmountable as a legal barrier. We are not in Schengen now. We operated the EAW without CJEU jurisdiction up to 2014. The charter creates no new rights. EU citizenship matters only for those with constitutional barriers and we are already close to a solution on that in the withdrawal agreement, but I fully support her request for a debate.
Brexit: Residence Rights
Debate between Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town and Baroness Williams of Trafford(7 years, 2 months ago)
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Baroness Williams of Trafford
As I say to the noble Baroness, the system has been vastly improved. Having acquired permanent residence under the Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2006, an individual must have 12 months free from immigration restrictions before pursuing an application for British citizenship. The inclusion of the date on which an applicant is deemed to have acquired permanent residence helps to inform applicants about the point at which they are eligible to apply for British citizenship. That removes the uncertainty surrounding the process and the cost to the applicant of submitting an application that might be refused on the basis that they have not been free of immigration restrictions for the required time.
Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Lab)
My Lords, the Question is actually about residency rather than nationality. In order to get residency status, people have to show that they have comprehensive sickness insurance. EU nationals were never told about that when they came here. In fact, most of them are eligible to use the NHS. Therefore, many of them will not qualify under the present rules. When the residency issue is finally agreed, will the Government agree to look at waiving the requirement for comprehensive sickness insurance so that people will be able to stay here under permanent residency?
Baroness Williams of Trafford
The noble Baroness raises a valid point about comprehensive sickness insurance, because not everyone is required to have it. People who are not economically active, obviously, and students have to show that they are self-sufficient in that sense. But I am very happy to clarify that in a letter, which I will make sure is in the Library, because it can be confusing.
Gender Pay Gap
Debate between Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town and Baroness Williams of Trafford(7 years, 4 months ago)
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Baroness Williams of Trafford
My Lords, we do not intend to create additional civil penalties at this time but we can review that if levels of compliance are not satisfactory. As the noble Baroness said, non-compliance will constitute an unlawful act and will fall within the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s existing enforcement powers under the Equality Act 2006. I am grateful to the noble Baroness for bringing up this question and I am pleased to say that the trajectory is heading in a very positive direction.
Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Lab)
My Lords, I started working in 1970, when the Minister was just three years old. Of course, that was also the year of the Equal Pay Act. I would have been devastated had I discovered that, almost half a century later, I would be standing here still with an 18% pay gap. I ask the Minister to do two things. First, will she make sure that government investment is geared towards getting women into the highest-paid professions and industries, because, at the moment, women are mostly in low-paid industry? Secondly, could she possibly tell her Treasury colleagues that, through almost 90% of their tax and benefits changes relating to women, they are only adding insult to injury?
Baroness Williams of Trafford
My Lords, the Government, starting with the previous Prime Minister, are most certainly committed to the very ends that the noble Baroness seeks. Not only are women contributing to tax, but they also bring the huge benefit of increasing GDP in this country.
Housing and Planning Bill
Debate between Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town and Baroness Williams of Trafford
Baroness Williams of Trafford
My Lords, I am not entirely sticking to a script. In saying that, though, I hope I can reflect the views of the Government accurately. I add my tribute to the noble Baroness, Lady Hayter, and the noble Lord, Lord Palmer, and of course to the parliamentary draftsmen, who have turned this around so quickly. The noble Baroness and the noble Lord are experts in this area and have taught me much about it over the past few weeks. We have met them both in recent days and I have listened carefully to the points they have made.
I thank the noble Baroness for tabling this amendment following our discussion. If approved by this House, it will provide an enabling power for the Secretary of State to make regulations by affirmative procedure to require letting agents and property management agents to belong to a client money protection scheme. It will also provide a clear enforcement mechanism, which is important for ensuring that this regulation has teeth.
The Government have already shown our commitment to taking steps on this issue, committing to a review of the transparency legislation, which includes a requirement for letting agents to be transparent about whether they offer client money protection, and to work with the sector to explore the detailed options for regulation. However, it is important that we ensure that the regulation is balanced and does not overburden the sector, and that we get the detail of the legislation right and do not rush into it. So the review will be important in informing the details of the regulation, and I am very happy to give my assurance that the Government will act on its findings at the earliest opportunity.
There has been some discussion about “must”, “shall” and “may”. I have almost lost track of where we got to on the amendment, but I think we were satisfied on the balance of “must”, “may” and “shall”. Still, in no way does that lessen our commitment to the issue at hand.
I inform the House that the Housing Minister and I have asked the noble Baroness, Lady Hayter, and the noble Lord, Lord Palmer, to play a key role in the review of client money protection and transparency, reflecting their knowledge of and commitment to these issues, and I am very grateful that they have agreed. I hope that, with those points in mind, noble Lords will agree to support the amendment. I think that is the first time I have said that in this housing Bill.
Women: Refuges
Debate between Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town and Baroness Williams of Trafford
Baroness Williams of Trafford
My Lords, as I said in answer to a previous question, domestic violence is a very complex issue. For the people, mainly women, who experience it there are more complexities than just the domestic violence they suffer. As the noble Baroness says, they may have children and suffer mental health problems, often as a result of the abuse they have suffered. So yes, we are thinking very clearly about that.
Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Lab)
My Lords, given that about 30 of the refuges have had to close, a lot of this need then falls back on local government, which is not able to offer the same specialist, trained advice. Does the Minister accept that this is not just about having a plethora of places? There must be specialist, trained people to provide help and direction, whether to legal aid or to other forms of help.
Baroness Williams of Trafford
My Lords, UKROL data show that bed spaces actually rose from 3,216 in 2013 to 3,350 in 2015, but—it is a huge “but”, and I am not at all dismissing what the noble Baroness says—demand is increasing massively. She is right that it is absolutely crucial that we think about the support and other services that are needed. Those services will be provided not just by local authorities and housing associations, but by all the providers who have been so active in this area for so long.
Redress Schemes for Lettings Agency Work and Property Management Work (Requirement to Belong to a Scheme etc) (England) Order 2014
Debate between Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town and Baroness Williams of Trafford
Baroness Williams of Trafford (Con)
My Lords, the private rented sector now represents the second most common form of tenure in England, providing for 4 million households. We believe that there are more than 3 million residential leasehold properties in England. I declare at this point that I am both a leaseholder and a landlord.
Approximately one-third of letting agents and a minority of property managers are not members of a redress scheme. This means that people using these services do not have ready access to an independent complaints procedure if they receive poor service from their agent. The majority of letting agents and property managers provide a good service. However, for people living in or owning property in the private rented and leasehold sectors, who rely on these agents, the inability to seek redress can have a significantly detrimental impact on their quality of life.
The Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 gave the Secretary of State the power to require all residential letting agents and property managers in England to be members of a government-approved redress scheme. The first order, laid before this House on 25 October 2013, gave the Secretary of State the power to approve redress schemes and to set out requirements for them. As stated when that order was debated in November, a second order was to be made, making the requirement mandatory, once the Secretary of State was satisfied that all agents were able to join a redress scheme. The Secretary of State is satisfied that we have now reached that stage and we propose that the duty to belong to an approved redress scheme will come into force on 1 October this year.
In April 2014, the Secretary of State approved three schemes: the Property Ombudsman, the Ombudsman Services Property and the Property Redress Scheme. These three schemes provide an independent, transparent and competitive source of redress for landlords, leaseholders and tenants. Furthermore, the performance of these redress schemes will be monitored, ensuring that a high level of service and standards is maintained.
The redress schemes will have a range of options to tackle poor service by letting agencies. They will be able to require apologies, explanations, compensation, making good and even expulsion from the scheme. To ensure that all letting agents join a scheme, councils will be able to fine agents more than once for failing to join one. Yet the order is fair, in that should an agent or property manager feel that the fine is wrong or unreasonable, they will be able to appeal to the First-tier Tribunal.
We recognise that enforcing the requirement for membership of a redress scheme will entail a new burden for local authorities, so we will make additional funding available. Furthermore, councils will be able to retain the fine, enabling the proceeds from tackling cowboy agents to be used to tackle yet more rogue agents, where they exist, thus continually driving up standards in the industry. Councils will also be assisted by the redress schemes working together and with trading standards, minimising the capacity for rogue letting agents and property managers to hide.
The definition of what constitutes letting agent and property management work is very broad. We have therefore provided some exemptions where there is already a suitable mechanism for customers to seek redress or there is existing regulation. For example, universities helping to find student accommodation or operating halls of residence, legal professionals, managers of refuge homes and mortgage receivers are all engaged in work that could be covered by this order but are subject to existing regulation.
The order will bring a source of redress to the individuals who use around 3,000 letting agents and property managers. It will complement and strengthen existing provision in both the leasehold and private rented sectors. It will also complement the requirement that we are introducing through the Consumer Rights Bill for letting agents to publicise their fees both in their offices and on their website. This will encourage competitive fees, deterring agents from charging tenants and landlords for the same service.
Overall, we want to raise standards for landlords, tenants and leaseholders. Mandatory redress and transparent fees will go a long way to achieving this. I commend the order to the Committee.
Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Lab)
My Lords, I welcome the noble Baroness, as I think that this is the first time that we have done this. For me, this is a great delight because, as I am sure that she will not need reminding, it implements the amendment that I managed to secure, against the Government’s wishes, in the House. Needless to say, therefore, I warmly welcome the order. However, I want to make some comments and pose some questions to the Minister. I understand that my questions landed her on desk a little late and that some of the answers may have to be by letter.
First, the scheme will work only if all landlords and tenants become aware of their right to take any unresolved complaints against letting or property management agents to an ombudsman. What plans are there to raise such awareness? Will these include requiring every agent to publicise the relevant ombudsperson on their headed notepaper, website or whatever?
Secondly, in other retail areas, the consumer can shop around between providers, so normally transparency of fees is of great assistance. However, this of course is a different industry, where that does not apply to tenants, 60% of whom find their home via an agent. The tenant can choose only between properties; they do not select the agent. It is the landlord who selects the agent. What plans do the Government have to encourage landlords to shop around and thus drive up standards? Tenants simply cannot do that.
It is obviously too much to expect that the redress scheme itself will raise standards. It will certainly not be able to do it unless local authorities enforce the awards—although we are delighted with the incentive that the Government have made available, which I think local authorities will grab with both hands. In addition, standards will not rise unless there is some sort of feedback loop to ensure that bad practice is stamped out rather than continually requiring the consumer to suffer and then make individual complaints.
The Government may well say that they will oversee the redress schemes to make sure that they are effective, but I am more interested in how we oversee the sector to see that the lessons from those redress systems are brought together. Somebody should have responsibility for seeing what the common problems being complained about are and driving up standards in that way. It is, as we know, an industry infamous for instances of bad practice. According to Shelter, one in four people have been charged unfair fees. Reference checks can cost as little £10, which is very nice, but as much as £275, while renewal fees can cost up to £200. This is in a sector of 9 million tenants, where rents have increased by twice as much as wages since 2010. These unfair charges are hitting a group already suffering from high rents.
The Minister touched upon cases of agents double-charging; that is, charging both landlord and tenant for the same service. I am less relaxed than the Minister that simply putting up the list of charges will deter that. There is, furthermore, probably an interesting legal question as to whether tenants become clients if they pay an agent for a service. Can the Minister tell the Committee whether a payment for such a service makes the tenant a consumer under the Consumer Rights Bill? Would they therefore have the same consumer rights over those services, especially the right to have such a service provided with “reasonable care and skill”, as set out in that Bill?
It is clear that redress systems themselves cannot, of course, enforce their awards. If a letting or managing agent does not implement an adjudication, all the redress scheme can do is de-list the agency. The two existing schemes have an agreement that they would not take on an agency which has been debarred by the other, which is a pretty essential requirement to aid enforcement. Can the Minister tell the Committee whether the new, third scheme will undertake not to take on an agent that has been debarred from one of the existing schemes for not abiding by an adjudication? Without that, there will be no enforcement—unless the Government have something else up their sleeve they have not yet told us about. Can the Minister also tell us whether the new, third scheme will operate to an existing code, which the other two obviously already work to? What thought has been given to consistency of outcomes, which the two existing schemes strive to achieve?
On the selection of redress schemes, outlined by the Minister in her introduction, could she explain why, for the very first time in the development of statutory requirements to belong to an ombudsman, a profit-making body has been approved? All the others, across housing, energy, health, local government, telecoms, and legal and financial services, are either statutory bodies or not for profit. Why do the Government consider that this area of public policy should reside in the hands of someone out to make a profit? Why, anyway, did the Government want to add a third—a new, non-existent body—to two established, recognised and respected schemes? Is helping to set up a new ombudsman not at variance with Cabinet Office guidance that the Government should not set up a new ombudsman where there is already a satisfactory one in the relevant market? It would be interesting to know what risk assessment has been done of a “flight to the bottom”—in other words, making it as cheap as possible for landlords, when the majority of complaints will come from tenants—if there is a plethora of ombudsmen, with fairly obvious consequences for the quality of adjudications.
I understand that the new scheme is seeking to charge landlords considerably less than the established schemes, but does such competition on price—to be paid by the landlord, who will not be making the complaints on the whole—not risk compromising the quality of service provided to tenants? Will it not be confusing for consumers, tenants and landlords, to have to try and find out which is the appropriate ombudsman for their particular letting agent? Elsewhere, there is a move to rationalise and even reduce the number of schemes to make it easier for consumers, as we have seen from the report by the Select Committee in the other place. At the very least, should we not be working towards a common portal to help complainants rather than setting up ever more ombudsmen?
Baroness Williams of Trafford
My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness for her input on this debate, and I congratulate her on the part she has played in this area. I will go straight to the various questions which the noble Baroness raised. The first question was about raising awareness and agents publicising their fees. We expect scheme membership to be publicised by members, and all three schemes will publish a list of members. We expect the schemes to work with their members to publicise which scheme they have joined. This should be displayed on an agent’s letterhead and perhaps on a sticker in their windows, on their website and so on. As for what happens when an agent fails to display their membership details, all three schemes will publish a list of their members, which will enable the general public to search those lists. Alternatively, someone could contact their local authority, which will be obliged to investigate.
The noble Baroness asked what will prevent an agent being kicked off one scheme and then joining another without the public knowing. All three approved redress schemes have agreed to work together. They have the power to share information with the appropriate regulatory bodies and with each other to ensure that rogue agents do not play one scheme off against another. Should one of the schemes expel an agent, it must set the conditions for readmittance of that agent and tell the other schemes. An agent must then meet those conditions before they can join any of the schemes. Given that the majority of letting agents provide a good service, with only one-fifth of tenants and 17% of landlords dissatisfied with the service according to a Which? report of November 2012, this will only apply to a few exceptional agents.
The noble Baroness also asked whether tenants would qualify as consumers under the Consumer Rights Bill. I will write to her about that. She also asked whether the third scheme was working with the existing schemes and whether it will use the existing code. The answer to that is, simply, yes. The noble Baroness asked what the reason was for the third scheme. The DCLG will monitor the performance of the schemes through key performance indicators and will undertake a review of the policy in around a year, after the regulations come into force, to ensure its objectives are being met. The schemes were selected as they all met the conditions for approval, including demonstrating that they are independent, fair, effective, transparent and accountable. The first two are existing schemes, as the noble Baroness pointed out, which between them already have 60% of the total 11,560 agencies as members. The PRS is a new provider but is very much open for business.
The noble Baroness also asked whether approving a scheme which is run by the same company as one of the tenancy deposit schemes will create a conflict of interest. The PRS met all the conditions for approval, including that it should be independent. It indicated in its bid that it will apply for membership of the Ombudsman Association, which will demonstrate that it embodies the key characteristics of redress schemes, namely effectiveness, fairness, openness and transparency. I hope it will give the noble Baroness comfort that the DCLG will monitor the performance of all the schemes and will have the ability to withdraw approval should a scheme no longer meet the conditions for approval.
I think that addresses all the points that the noble Baroness made. If not, I shall write to her afterwards.
Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town
Some of those answers are particularly welcome, for example about publicity and working together, but the Minister has not commented on the use, for the first time, of a private for-profit company. I assume she took my comment as a comment rather than a question. I would be interested if she could respond to that but, if not, I will let it lie on the table.
Baroness Williams of Trafford
Perhaps I could write to the noble Baroness on that point.