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They will not force anybody, but they will apply to everybody. If someone raises the issue and it is responded to and they do not need to refer to or invoke the provisions, that is great, but it will apply to everybody.

We will be watching that closely. It is worth saying again that 90 per cent of properties start from a high bar because they are substantially free from damp and mould, but we are talking about the other 10 per cent. How we monitor the effect will be different across the social and private rented sectors. In the social rented sector, we have the Scottish Housing Regulator and reports and reviews that we can use to help us monitor how the regulations are being used.

We will continue our dialogue with the private rented sector, which is well represented by groups such as the Scottish Association of Landlords, with which we have contact, and they can also keep us up to date. I started my answer by referring to the fact that the Scottish household condition survey tells us that 90 per cent of properties are substantially free from damp and mould. That will continue to be an important indicator of how Awaab’s law is operating, and I hope to see that number climbing.

It is important to know that there are the backstops of the ombudsman and the First-tier Tribunal, but we are very much trying to avoid people having to go down that route. Ensuring that there is a clear understanding of what is required and what constitutes

“substantially free from damp and mould”

is how we will avoid those backstops being required.

I should say from the outset, as you might expect me to, that the work of the tribunal—its administration, workload and management—is not a matter that ministers can or should seek to control. It is for the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service; it is entirely independent of us.

However, of course, when we are bringing in new laws that will affect the tribunal, we have to be conscious of that. My officials have engaged with the SCTS about this and other legislation that has come from the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025—of which the committee knows that there has been rather a lot. We will keep engaging to make sure that it is manageable. I know that there are concerns about timescales; we are working closely with the tribunal, but I cannot, nor should I, seek to direct the tribunal on its work.

I will take those questions in turn, and I might bring in my colleagues as well. I will first cover the point about temporary accommodation, because I understand that that has been discussed during the evidence that you have taken. Shelter, in particular, has quite rightly raised the question of ensuring that there is full coverage.

From the outset, we have chosen secondary legislation to bring Awaab’s law into force, which has meant amending existing regimes and standards. That has allowed us to move quite quickly to ensure that those protections are on the statute book, but it also means that there is not much scope for deviation from what exists in the standards.

As I said in my opening remarks, the regulations that we are discussing will apply to private tenancies, Scottish secure tenancies and short Scottish secure tenancies. I assure you that all temporary accommodation that is provided under a short Scottish secure tenancy—sorry; it is a bit of a mouthful—will be covered by the regulations. However, we know that other forms of temporary accommodation are provided, under licences and occupancy agreements, for example, which we could not have used this secondary legislation to cover, but which we want to see covered. Therefore, we are now doing a bit of work to understand the full lay of the land and how Awaab’s law could be applied to those.

The Government is asking itself whether a bespoke standard is required to cover such accommodation. Once that has been established, we will try to work out exactly how to apply Awaab’s law in that regard, but we need to do the preparatory work first. In the meantime, we have built on the existing regime, as we were called on to do, which has allowed us to get Awaab’s law on to the statute book quickly. However, there is quite a complex landscape in relation to accommodation, and we want to ensure that things are covered across the board.

Things are moving at different paces. I mentioned the work that we are doing on guidance for Gypsy Traveller accommodation. Nichelle Gill can correct me if I am wrong, but I think that our hope is that that guidance will be in place when the general guidance on Awaab’s law comes into force—the work is running in that way. However, I cannot say with certainty that our work on assessing the need for a bespoke standard for seasonal workers’ accommodation can be completed at the same time. It is a moving picture, but we will keep working on our objective to provide coverage across the board.

First, it is very important that I set out that all temporary accommodation that is provided in Scotland should meet the tolerable standard. After the regulations come into force, Awaab’s law will apply to any temporary accommodation that is provided under a short Scottish secure tenancy, and we are working with local authorities, which have that statutory responsibility, to compile the types of agreements that they use, so that we can apply Awaab’s law to those agreements.

Everybody in temporary accommodation should be covered by the tolerable standard. Many will be protected by Awaab’s law because they have a short Scottish secure tenancy, and we are working to extend that law to cover everybody else. We will continue to work on that with Shelter and others—particularly local authorities, so that we get information on the types of occupancy agreements that are being used.

09:45

That is exactly the work that I just described.

We have thought a lot about enforcement. The starting point for Awaab’s law is good collaboration with tenants and landlords, as we have had in developing the regulations, and strong guidance, which is developed hand in hand with stakeholders so that they have a good understanding of tenants’ rights, landlords’ obligations, landlords’ rights and so on. We are doing all that because we hope to avoid the need for compensation and to encourage strong understanding and collaboration from the outset. We are putting a huge amount of work into ensuring that there is a clear understanding of what is required of everybody and into encouraging early dialogue between landlords and tenants to make sure that those requirements are fulfilled.

On compensation, I go back to some of the remarks that I made at the beginning: we are amending existing provisions. Although we are amending the right to repair scheme and the repairing standard, we are not opening up the question of compensation that sits behind them, as to do so would be a much larger piece of work. We have chosen not to do that so that we can get Awaab’s law on to the statute book as quickly as possible.

However, there are compensatory measures under the right to repair scheme, which applies to the social sector. I understand Living Rent’s view on that, but my hope is that we can avoid the need for such measures. There is a process under the repairing standard, which applies to the private sector and which we have amended via the regulations—perhaps one of my colleagues can remind me what the final options are under that for the private sector.