Correspondence
Licensing of Houses in Multiple Occupation (Prescribed Description) (England) Order 2018 (SI 2018/221)
6.In our 22nd Report of this Session,1 we published information about the Licensing of Houses in Multiple Occupation (Prescribed Description) (England) Order 2018. We were concerned that the significant extension of licensing of Houses in Multiple Occupation required by the Order might not be readily achieved in the relatively short period until the Order took effect (October 2018).
7.We wrote to the Minister for Housing and Homelessness on 14 March, asking about the steps being taken by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to ensure that the extension of licensing would be achieved. We have received a reply of 19 March from the Minister, Mrs Heather Wheeler, MP, and we are publishing this correspondence at Appendix 1.
“Purdah” and secondary legislation
8.In our scrutiny of secondary legislation earlier in the current Session, we noted that several Departments attributed delays in laying statutory instruments in part to the impact of periods of “purdah” before elections. On 21 December 2017, we wrote to the Cabinet Office Minister about such delays, and about the extent to which future work on secondary legislation would be similarly affected.
9.We have received a reply of 12 March from the Minister for Implementation, Mr Oliver Dowden, MP, and we are publishing this correspondence at Appendix 2.
1 22nd Report, Session 2017–19 (HL Paper 98).