I'll try to keep this as short as possible. We considered these regulations at our meeting on 31 January, and our report to the Senedd contains two merits reporting points. These regulations, as the Minister has said, amend the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 to place two further restrictions on a landlord’s ability to issue a notice seeking possession—first, if an energy performance certificate has not been provided, and, second, if certain health and safety requirements have not been met.

We noted in our report that regulations 3 and 4 prevent a landlord from giving notice if there are breaches of certain statutory obligations. Any provision that interferes with an individual’s property, or use of that property, will potentially engage article 1, protocol 1 to the European convention on human rights. The explanatory memorandum does not contain a justification for the interference with human rights. So, as such, we asked the Welsh Government to provide details of the human rights assessment that it undertook in relation to these particular regulations. In its response to our report, the Government explained that, provided a landlord is in compliance with the two statutory obligations, any harmful effect is mitigated. As such, the Government was satisfied that the regulations are indeed compatible with the convention on human rights.

Our second reporting point drew attention to the use of Henry VIII powers. It won't only be this Minister that's familiar with us drawing attention to these. These regulations amend primary legislation, in this case the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016. During Stage 1 scrutiny of the then Bill, our predecessor committee sought clarification in relation to the justification for the use of these Henry VIII powers. The then Minister’s response stated that the Government needed to have the flexibility to react to how the housing landscape evolves over time and to make appropriate provision as necessary. In its response to our reporting point, the Government noted the response to our predecessor committee’s request for clarification on the use of such powers, but indicated it had nothing further to add. So, I think we'll have to call this a score draw for now.