Our recommendation 1 asks the Minister to publish a full analysis of the impact of the Bill's provision on human rights. Before moving on, I'd like to briefly mention recent regulations made by the Welsh Ministers in response to coronavirus to the temporarily altered existing legislative framework for the possession process and landlords' notice periods. The Coronavirus Act 2020 temporarily increased to three months the notice period a landlord in England or Wales had to give before they could ask a court for a possession order. The Minister then made the Coronavirus Act 2020 (Assured Tenancies and Assured Shorthold Tenancies, Extension of Notice Periods) (Amendment) (Wales) Regulations 2020. They temporarily extended the notice period from three months to six months, and subsequently, on 25 September 2020, the Minister made the Coronavirus Act 2020 (Residential Tenancies: Protection from Eviction) (Wales) Regulations 2020. These regulations extend until 31 March 2021 the period during which increased notice must be given to tenants. I mention these regulations, and they have been referred to, to emphasise the importance of human rights considerations when making primary and secondary legislation. Both sets of regulations came into force less than 21 days after they were laid before the Senedd, meaning limited notice to both landlords and tenants. Our scrutiny of these regulations has drawn to the Welsh Government's attention what we consider to be an insufficient analysis regarding the competing human rights of landlords and tenants.

As regards the need for the Bill, we noted that the Welsh Government's own consultation on the proposed reforms to notice periods did not provide evidence of strong favourable support. We also noticed the Minister's suggestion there's been some reliance on using anecdotal evidence. We do acknowledge that there may be a more widespread issue about engaging with the private rented sector in Wales, however, on a general point of principle, the Minister's evidence base is weakened by the informality of the data and the committee did not consider it good practice to rely on such evidence as grounds for changing primary legislation.

Our recommendation 2 asks that the Welsh Government increases its engagement and develops more formal links with contract holders in the private rented sector in Wales. This should facilitate more robust data gathering from this sector to better inform legislative proposals. And I welcome the Minister's acceptance of this particular recommendation.

Recommendation 3 in our report was linked to the limitations of the evidence base. We have welcomed the Minister's intention to review the implementation of the Bill as part of the planned evaluation of the 2016 Act. As a committee, we have general concerns about the proliferation of the statute book as it applies in Wales. As such, we recommended that the planned evaluation of the 2016 Act should consider the potential urgency for the full consolidation of Welsh housing law. Again, I welcome the acceptance of this in principle by the Minister and also recognise that, clearly, this is a matter now for a future Assembly.

Moving to our final recommendation, we noted that the Ministry of Justice agrees with the Welsh Government that the overall impact of the Bill on case load for the courts system in Wales is likely to be negligible over time. Nonetheless, the Minister accepts that the Bill is also to cause an increase in the number of claims requiring hearings from private landlords. Potential delays to court proceedings must be avoided. The courts system should not result in high costs being incurred and timely resolution is important to mitigate the impact the Bill will have on the landlord's right to access their own property. So, our fourth recommendation—and we consider this to be a particularly important recommendation, again for a future Assembly—and that is to investigate the need for a dedicated housing tribunal in Wales. Such a tribunal could, amongst other things, consider possession claims made by landlords. We recommend that the result of this investigation should be reported to the Senedd and that this should be a matter that carries over certainly into the next Assembly as well. Diolch, Llywydd.