Immigration Act 2014 (Commencement No. 6) Order 2016

Baroness Andrews Excerpts

Wednesday 24th February 2016 Lords Chamber

which deal with homeless people who have been refused accommodation—we all know that local authorities face a great demand for housing. This is a scheme which in our view is unworkable, disproportionate, discriminatory, affects our reputation internationally among international students, and has a narrow focus on immigrants that badly affects the UK’s own citizens. This needs far longer testing and more and better evaluation and adjustment. I beg to move.

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Baroness Andrews) (Lab)]

My Lords, if this Motion is agreed to, the Motion in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Rosser, may not be called by reason of pre-emption.

[Earl Cathcart (Con)]

My Lords, in Committee on the Immigration Bill on 20 January, I said that I supported delaying the roll out of the pilot scheme. I said:

“I thought that the whole point of a pilot scheme was to ensure that what was being put forward was actually working as intended. However, as mentioned by the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants found that two-thirds of landlords had not fully understood the code of practice on preventing illegal immigration or indeed the code of practice on avoiding discrimination, and that 50% of those who had been refused a tenancy felt discriminated against while 40% of tenants in the pilot area had not been asked for any identity documents. That is hardly a resounding success for the pilot scheme, yet the Government want to roll out this contentious scheme across the country next month. That cannot be the right answer”.—[Official Report, 20/1/16; cols.873-874.]

I still hold that view. I have great reservations about rolling out the scheme before the work has been properly done. The Residential Landlords Association recently surveyed almost 1,500 landlords across the country and showed that the vast majority of landlords simply do not have the information they need to undertake the checks properly. I am one of over 90% of landlords who said that they had not received any information from the Government about the right-to-rent checks by mail, email, from an advert or leaflet or from the internet, while 72% of landlords said that they did not understand their obligations under the policy. I only know about the right-to-rent checks because I am a Member of your Lordships’ House. I have received no other information.

Since Committee on the Bill on 20 January, the Minister has held a number of meetings with noble Lords, for which I thank him. My noble friend Lord Howard of Rising and I had one such meeting on not criminalising landlords who had done their best not to rent to illegals. We discussed whether immigration enforcement officers should be issued with clear guidance about when not to prosecute landlords who had done their best, so that only the deliberate flouters of the law could be pursued and prosecuted. I know that other such meetings with the Minister have also taken place on this subject. I do not know what the Minister has managed to achieve as a result of those meetings, so I will listen with great interest to what my noble friend says.