Official Report 792KB pdf
The next item on our agenda is evidence from Paul McLennan, the Minister for Housing, on the Scottish Government’s short-term lets implementation update. The minister is joined by three Scottish Government officials. Andy Kinnaird is head of transforming planning; Margaret Main is a lawyer in the legal directorate; and Anita Stewart is the policy team leader.
Before we turn to questions from members, I invite the minister to make a brief opening statement.
Thank you, convener. I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on this year’s short-term lets implementation update report and answer questions about the evidence that you have gathered from stakeholders.
I note that the committee received 19 responses in total. Just under half came from local authorities, under a third came from industry organisations and the remainder came from Government bodies, festival organisations and two community groups. Everything included in those responses mirrors views that have already been shared with the Scottish Government. We were confused by a few local authorities saying that we had not involved them, as we had and they contributed to the report. From reading some of the responses that the committee received, I think that there was perhaps a misunderstanding about the engagement that we did for the report and the committee’s call for evidence.
As the report outlines, the feedback that we received broadly fell under the following headings: calls to improve guidance; calls to amend legislation; and asks that were out of scope. We have committed to actions to address the first two areas, and I note that the evidence that you received broadly endorses that approach.
Considerable feedback was gathered from a range of stakeholders and sources. We have been careful not to draw conclusions, as we feel that there is not yet sufficient data available to assess impacts.
The report provides early insights and information on initial short-term licence application levels across Scotland, considers current operational processes and identifies operational improvements, including Scottish Government actions, where appropriate. We have already made operational adjustments to the licensing scheme as a direct result of feedback from a range of stakeholders.
I understand that some groups within the sector want us to halt the present regulation and undertake a review. We have committed to on-going monitoring, but it would not be responsible to review regulation that has only just been implemented and is still in a transitional phase, especially for a sector that has invested in compliance and because licensing is meeting its purpose of ensuring consistent safety standards.
We will continue to work with and listen to stakeholders. I am pleased to inform the committee that, as well as the regular engagement that we already have in place, the first meeting of the guidance expert group that is being facilitated by VisitScotland will take place later this month.
We have already said that we are open to undertaking further consultation once the guidance work concludes. We cannot address that through guidance and we need to gather wider views before deciding how to proceed.
I am happy to answer any questions that the committee has.
Thanks very much for that opening statement. I will begin with home sharing and letting, which came up when we considered the issue a while ago. I am interested to hear why you chose not to consider areas of significant stakeholder concern, such as the inclusion of home sharing and letting in the licensing regime, as part of the update process.
I will bring in Anita Stewart in a second because she has been dealing with that as well. When we set out the wider scheme, we talked about bed and breakfasts and guest houses—we have talked about them previously with the committee. With home letting, it was a case of seeing how that settled down. We have issued guidance to local authorities on that point.
The point that I made right at the very start is that the process is all about safety and compliance, which are of paramount importance in what we are looking for. I will bring in Anita Stewart to add to that.
As members are aware, we have spoken to a range of stakeholders as part of this work. We heard from some organisations that run different home exchange models that they felt that that area should not be included. We wanted to look at that through the guidance work that we have planned, take wider views to understand what others feel about the issue and, after that, decide what steps to take next.
There is a bit of a process before you might get to that place.
Yes.
That is good to hear.
We have heard from short-term let providers that they have concerns that the Scottish Government has downplayed their concerns in the update report. I am interested to hear your response to that.
You will know, convener, that I was a member of the committee when we first discussed short-term lets, and I listened to some of the concerns about the issue at that time.
Government ministers have met the Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers on about 10 occasions—I have met it on seven occasions so far—so we are obviously listening to it regularly. We have also met and engaged with the Scottish Tourism Alliance. We have spoken to the likes of Booking.com, Airbnb and so on a number of times as well. Indeed, they met with the previous First Minister, Mr Yousaf, and the current Deputy First Minister, and they endorsed our approach of looking at the review, seeing what we need to do and seeing how things bed down.
We have been listening to providers. We might not have agreed with all the points that they have raised but we have certainly listened to them. We are not downplaying. As part of the process, we are saying that people should look at the implementation update and let things bed down a little. We have made changes already. We have listened and will continue to listen, and I have made that commitment when meeting providers.
We have also engaged with the Society of Local Authority Lawyers and Administrators. Local authorities are the licensing bodies, and we get feedback from the sector on the time taken to process applications and how those are assessed using local interpretation, on which we have tried to work with SOLAR.
We have worked with providers face to face and through local authorities to pick up issues that they have had with local authorities as well. We have issued further guidance, as required, following feedback from the ASSC and the STA, for example.
It is very much an on-going process and we have mentioned that to the providers regularly.
You mentioned committing to the review but you do not have any further actions at this point. However, we are a year on since the introduction of the short-term lets policy and there have been increases in rents and hotel prices. One platform showed that guest bookings during the Edinburgh fringe and the world-renowned festival dropped 13 per cent as supply constraints priced out guests and performers. Do you think that the short-term lets policy as it stands is working?
Rents and hotel prices have soared throughout our capital. The average hotel price in Edinburgh rose to a record high over the past year, increasing by 11.5 per cent, which is double the national average. What is your response to that? Do you understand the frustration of the sector, which feels that the Government is not moving quickly enough to resolve the issues with the short-term lets policy?
You raised a number of points. I think that Edinburgh needs to be looked at very much on its own. I had meetings with the Edinburgh International Festival and Edinburgh Festival Fringe and we tried to be as accommodating as possible with them about exemptions. We met the council as well. They were really positive meetings.
The Taylor Swift and Oasis concerts have been mentioned, and there is a capacity issue in Edinburgh. The council needs to undertake a piece of work on the capacity of the city. That is an important point. The issue of short-term lets was raised when Taylor Swift was here or when other events have happened, but there is a broader capacity issue that Edinburgh needs to look at. I have discussed that with the council: what can Edinburgh actually take?
It is a case of supply and demand. You might think that short-term lets have a role in that, but the much broader supply-and-demand issue is whether there is enough hotel space for a Taylor Swift or Oasis concert. The council needs to look at that. I do not think that trying to compare hotel space with short-term lets is the best comparison to make. Edinburgh needs to look at its capacity for events.
There is a similar situation with the Commonwealth games, for example. Part of the work that the Commonwealth games team and Glasgow will be doing is to look at the capacity for taking in visitors.
There needs to be a broader review, as we mentioned when we spoke to the festivals. There is a much broader issue for Edinburgh, and I think that you may argue that short-term lets are part of that. The council obviously has to look at the issue in the context of its short-term lets control area, which has nothing to do with licensing as such. Like any local authority, the council has the right, and was given authority from the Scottish Government, to look at having short-term lets control areas. However, the issue with Edinburgh is very much about capacity, and not just short-term lets.
There is a little bit of interest in this area. Before I bring in Willie Coffey, I will go to Alexander Stewart and Emma Roddick with brief supplementaries.
Minister, we are well aware of the organisations and structures that have issues with the scheme. One of the biggest is the Scottish Bed and Breakfast Association, which said that the scheme was
“by far the worst example of policy implementation”
that it has ever encountered. It saw it as “fragmented”, “inconsistent”, “arbitrary”, “onerous” and “costly”. Those are some of the areas that it has concerns about.
You talked about health and safety. Organisations such as the SBBA are compliant with health and safety rules already, with reference to inspection and enforcement. How do you respond to the SBBA’s analysis, which is relatively scathing about how the scheme has impacted its sector?
There are a number of points. I spoke to the SBBA too. I go right back to when the policy was brought in, when there was a discussion and decision as to whether the scheme was going to be a national scheme or, as with many licensing schemes in Scotland, whether it was going to be a local, or local authority, scheme.
It is up to local authorities to interpret the guidance and, at the beginning, each local authority interpreted it slightly differently. We have had meetings with SOLAR—the body that represents the licensing authorities in Scotland—on that. Guidance was issued about what to do if there was an issue around one authority interpreting part of the scheme differently from another. We tried to speak to SOLAR regularly.
I will bring in Anita Stewart to talk a little bit more about her involvement with local authorities. This is about trying to get national consistency but with local interpretation. Part of the review that we are talking about will look at that and see what we can do to further strengthen the guidance.
Anita, you spoke directly to SOLAR and so on. Do you want to say any more about the work that you have done on that point?
I think that the minister has covered very well the rationale behind the scheme being a local scheme, which mirrors other regulations that are in place for other types of businesses. You still have consistency in relation to safety standards across Scotland, but you also have the flexibility for local authorities to look at the circumstances in their area and decide whether there are any particular things that need to be taken account—indeed, they can look at particular applications.
We have worked with authorities to look at how we can facilitate a common approach, where that is possible. Members may have heard this before, but we worked with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, for example, on taking a common approach to applications, to make the process better and more user friendly for the applicant, and for the body that processes the applications.
That work continues. It is not done in isolation. We are working on operational improvement, and the intention is to link up with VisitScotland and the industry advisory group.
I think that, at the moment, the main thing is for us to do the guidance review first, and then look at whether there are things that we may need to take more views on before deciding further actions.
11:00
Good morning. I want to pick up on the comments about exemption discussions with the City of Edinburgh Council. I am aware that Living Rent has raised concerns about exemptions being granted for most of the year for festivals and major events. I have to stay here in Edinburgh during the week quite a bit, and it seems that there is always an event. During events such as the Taylor Swift concerts, there were sofas going for four figures a night. Does the minister recognise that operators can easily make most of the money that they would make in an entire year during such events alone? Therefore, is it in the spirit of the scheme for exemptions to be granted in such circumstances?
I will clarify the situation. As far as I am aware, the only exemption that the City of Edinburgh Council had was for the Edinburgh festival and so on. I mentioned the discussions about exemptions that I had with the council, the festival and the fringe in relation to the capacity issues that Meghan Gallacher raised. The council may come back to us on the Taylor Swift concerts or the Oasis concerts. I am not aware of the situation as regards exemptions in those periods. I do not know whether Anita Stewart is aware of any other exemptions. I have mentioned the events that we would be looking at.
Whether we are talking about an Oasis concert, a Taylor Swift concert or any other big event, whether in Edinburgh, Glasgow or anywhere else, capacity has to be looked at as part of the planning for such events. Thought needs to be given to how much a city can take in relation to short-term lets, hotel spaces and whatever other capacity is available. That is a piece of work that needs to be done. That falls outwith my remit, but I would always push any local authority to consider what its capacity is to take in an additional 60,000 guests who might be staying for two or three days.
I do not know whether Anita Stewart has anything else to say about exemptions, but the only discussions that I have had have been about the Edinburgh festival and the festival fringe, which, as you know, are long-established events.
Prior to the amendment to the licensing legislation that was made by Parliament this year, the legislation said that a licensing authority could decide to offer temporary exemptions and that, if it did, a host could apply for a temporary exemption, but it would be for a single period of no more than six weeks. The minister has alluded to the conversations that we had with the City of Edinburgh Council, but we also talked to other authorities to hear their views. We did so on the basis that we need to strike the right balance between the activity and how often it is undertaken, and whether that is something for which someone should apply for a full licence, or whether there should be more flexibility than is offered by an exemption for a single period of six weeks.
That is why an amendment was made to the licensing legislation earlier this year, which altered it to allow people to have an exemption for up to three periods, but the total could still not come to more than six weeks. We are still keeping an eye on that. We are monitoring the situation and speaking to different stakeholders about it. We can look at that, among other things that we might do after the guidance has been completed.
In the case of whole properties in particular, if a property is exempted for the festival period, does it not seem to be unlikely that it would be used for any other purpose for the rest of the year?
I am trying to understand the question. I will bring Anita in.
As you said, in Edinburgh in particular, there are many different events that happen throughout the year. The host will have to make a choice about what it is that they will ask to have an exemption from the requirement to have a licence for. Regardless of whether they want to do that over Hogmanay, the fringe or a different period, they cannot go over the maximum amount of six weeks in a calendar year.
A balance needs to be struck when it comes to providing flexibility, whether we are talking about exemptions for a couple of one-off events or for the festival, which runs for a month, but people probably start to come into the city about two weeks beforehand in order to start preparing and so on. It is a case of trying to provide that flexibility.
The discussions that I had with the festival and fringe organisations were about that six-week period, in which flexibility is key, given the extent to which visitor numbers increase. It is a case of achieving that balance, and that is part of the review that is being looked at.
The next questions come from Willie Coffey, who joins us online.
Good morning. In your opening remarks, you said that, at the moment, you have insufficient data to draw firm conclusions. Of course, we know that some will have made up their minds in the absence of any data whatsoever. Can you give us a wee flavour of whether anything is emerging on the implications of the licensing regime in relation to its main aims, which are to ensure that properties are safe and standards are high, and that there is a route for people to raise cases of antisocial behaviour? Is anything emerging from the data that you have that would give us a positive indication that the regime is working?
A number of things are emerging. I remember discussing this issue as a member of the committee. In relation to applications, it was estimated that we were talking about 32,000 properties. At the moment, we are talking about a figure of about 30,500, although it is expected that that will go up to about 35,000. The figures are ahead of where we thought that they would be, but we must remember that the initial figures were produced during the Covid period, when there would have been businesses that were struggling to continue.
There has been a slight contrast between the situation in Highland, for example, where the numbers have been very high, and those in Glasgow and Edinburgh, where they have been slightly lower than expected. However, the City of Edinburgh Council has the short-term let control area, and Glasgow City Council is talking about managing the provision of short-term lets. That relates to short-term let control areas as opposed to licensing.
The tourism sector has been recovering reasonably well, although it continues to face the cost of living crisis and so on.
Broadly speaking, we are slightly ahead of where we thought that we would be. The number of short-term lets has fallen slightly, by around 1 per cent or so. There has not been a substantial drop. With regard to the wider impact, we will need to see what happens in the coming months, over Hogmanay, next summer and so on.
Anita, do you have anything to add?
I think that the minister has covered the safety point, which was represented in the implementation update report, from the perspective of the involvement in assessing applications of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, Police Scotland, which looked at the fit and proper person aspect, and the local authorities. Initially, for a lot of applications that they were helping to support, the range of documentation that would have provided reassurance that checks on the safety requirements had been conducted was perhaps not there. That is set out in the report.
Anecdotally, Police Scotland has told us that the evidence that it provided to the committee on organised crime and so on at the end of 2021, prior to the legislation being passed, is still relevant and that the licensing scheme provides a mechanism for that to be tackled.
I have a few other statistics to mention. By the end of June, according to public registers and other information, 30,299 licensing applications had been made. The current figure is 34,285. There are local authorities that are still processing the data, so we expect that figure to be higher. The level of refusals—cases in which licences have not been granted—has been very low.
Broadly speaking, the number of applications that have been made is slightly ahead of what the estimates suggested prior to the inception of the licensing scheme.
I understand that the data that informs the implementation update report, which came out in August, goes up to the end of 2023, and that the report does not include the data from January 2024 to August 2024. Is there any reason why the data for that section of the current year was not included? We want the information to be as up to date and current as possible.
I will bring in Anita Stewart on that point, as she has been working on the figures over a period of time.
Mr Coffey, are you talking about the official statistics on short-term let licensing applications?
Could you update us on the position at the end of August?
At the end of August, the published statistics that were available to us took us up until the end of December 2023. Last month, we published statistics that took us up until the end of June this year. The intention is to publish the next statistics, which will take us up until December 2024, in around March or April next year. At that point, there will be the normal lag of a quarter in the publishing process.
I should add that my colleagues in the statistical team are doing a review, as part of which they are gathering views from different stakeholders about the frequency and the format of those publications in the future, because a lot of Scottish Government statistics are published annually, for example.
That is really helpful—you have cleared that up. Has anything emerged from the most recent data with regard to the main intentions of the policy that suggests that the policy is working or that it could perhaps be improved?
The minister highlighted the fact that the statistics that are available to us, which go up until the end of June, are a partial picture. We are expecting the figure to go up, but, last October, when the deadline for existing hosts closed, we were told anecdotally or informally by authorities that about 29,000 applications had been made. Now, using information from public registers and so on, the figure is more than 34,000. That shows that there is still a steady rate of applications coming in from new hosts. We know from talking to authorities, that, in the winter period, a lot of businesses will close and so on. Some operators might decide that they want to sell up and others will take over. Some previous operators might decide that they will do it less often and that they will apply for a temporary exemption rather than a full licence, while others might have had a break and might want to come back and apply for a full licence.
I think that that shows that we are still not seeing a full picture when it comes to understanding how the operators that were there prior to licensing starting are fully engaging with the current system and how many new operators are coming on board. In relation to the number of operators that are there, consistency and so on, licensing definitely provides assurance to guests who come to Scotland that certain checks will have been undertaken and that certain requirements will be in place when they stay in a short-term let.
Thank you.
I will stay with members who are online and bring in Mark Griffin.
I have a couple of questions about the proposed expert group, minister. What will the remit of the group be, who will it report to, how will members be appointed and who will provide the secretariat?
I will bring in Anita Stewart in a second. The important point is that, right at the start of this process, we said that we would pull the expert group together. It will be incredibly important as we go through the implementation updates and discuss what we do going forward. We have met VisitScotland and a number of other groups that also have an interest in the matter. As for the expert group itself, Anita Stewart has been dealing with the remit, membership and timescales. I will bring her in and come back after she has given a bit more detail about the logistics and why we pulled the group together.
11:15
The purpose of the expert group is primarily to look at Scottish Government guidance on the licensing and the planning of short-term lets. A number of matters were raised with us through the on-going monitoring that we are undertaking, so we have those issues as a starter for 10. The purpose of the group will be to take those and anything else they find when they work through the different guidance that we have for licensing and planning, to determine and make recommendations to Government about any changes.
We have asked VisitScotland to convene and facilitate the group. It will be chaired by a director at VisitScotland and we have representation on the group from SOLAR, licensing authorities, planning authorities and industry. The brief will be of a very technical nature, as you would imagine. VisitScotland is co-ordinating that and the first meeting will take place at the end of this month. The expectation is that we will have the revised suggested guidance to the Scottish Government early in the new year.
Once the recommendations have come forward and we have had a look at them, I will be happy to write to the committee on that point.
That would be helpful.
It is helpful to hear that one of the first issues that the expert group will look at is the crossover between planning and licensing. We have seen concerns in the written evidence about the interface between planning and licensing, and claims that they work separately and sometimes at odds with each other. Minister, do you have any early plans on how those two regulatory regimes could be streamlined when it comes to applying for short-term lets, and perhaps how they could work together better?
I will bring in Andy Kinnaird in a little while. We have had various proposals about how we make that process a lot quicker. Edinburgh, for example, has the ability to do that in the short-term lets control area, as has every other local authority. I know that Highland Council is looking at an area or two at the moment. That separate ability relates to a planning point of view.
On licensing, one of the keys things that has come up if a licensing application is going in is whether there is a material change of use. Again, it has been up to each local authority to look at that.
Anita Stewart talked about the broader review that the expert group, chaired by VisitScotland, will look at. The group will go into planning and licensing in a little bit more detail. I will bring in Andy Kinnaird, because I know that he has been looking at the process of licensing and planning. He may want to make other comments, too.
Thanks, minister. The opportunities and impacts of short-term lets are different in different parts of the country and even within different communities. It means that authorities can take different approaches to how they manage the planning aspects and how they choose to link or not link closely with the licensing regime. There is no obligation on licensing authorities to carry out a planning assessment in handling the licence, but there is recognition that some authorities will be more interested in using their planning controls than others. That leads to some different approaches across the country, but that is the nature of planning.
The important point, Mr Griffin, regarding the expert group being pulled together, is that it will look at all that in a little more detail. We will see what recommendations the group comes up with. It is down to the interpretation of each local authority in terms of planning and not just regarding short-term lets. They will have different interpretations of planning guidance and I think that that is the key thing. We will listen to what the expert group says and obviously discuss it with planning colleagues also.
The committee has heard concerns about a lack of enforcement action against unlicensed operators, potentially due to the licensing authority being unable to recoup enforcement costs. Do you have any plans or is there anything in the pipeline to support authorities wishing to take enforcement action?
Again, I will bring in Anita Stewart on the specifics. Enforcement was raised early in our discussions. It very much depends on what the actual issue is that requires enforcement. The subject was discussed with Police Scotland and I know that Anita Stewart has talked with local authorities about that and about what we need to do. Enforcement has not been widely abused or used at this particular time.
Issues very much depend on whether it is Edinburgh or the Highlands, for example. Again, the review will look at whether enforcement is a significant issue. I will bring in Anita Stewart, but I am aware that there have not been issues in any significant numbers. It will be very much down to where the local authority is, what the issue is and what we need to do to make sure that that is okay.
The Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 sets out quite clearly what the enforcement process is for licence holders; it is quite an established process.
If you are asking about enforcement against unlicensed operators, the report outlines that Police Scotland’s local teams have been working with licensing authorities to look at that, recognising that this is a transitional period. There is an approach here to consider proportionate action and to take an encourage-and-educate approach, with the last resort potentially being enforcement. That is what we are hearing across Scotland when we talk to authorities.
It has taken time for that to develop, across different areas, depending on the existing relationships between the licensing authorities and the police and how they were already taking enforcement action for other licensing regimes. Over time, I think that we will see cases coming forward that will be enforced. Licensing authorities will have a look at their own processes and how they deal with complaints that are brought to them by people complaining, “My neighbour is operating and they do not have a licence,” and so on. That goes through a particular process. I do not know whether the minister wants to add anything.
I come from a local authority background and I know that there are obviously different licensing regimes operating. It is very much the case that, if a complaint is received, it will be investigated and the approach will be to ask whether there is something that can be discussed, before it gets to the enforcement stage. There is always that first stage, because enforcement will always be the last resort. We have seen, in any previous licensing regimes, that it is always about having a discussion to try to alleviate the problem and, if not, enforcement is the last resort. As Anita Stewart said, it is about making sure that, if something is reported, we speak to local authorities and police authorities about the best way to deal with it. Local approaches will vary, but it is about following the existing regimes and licensing schemes. Talk to people, try to alleviate the problem or take it away and, if not, enforcement is the last resort. We cannot have people operating illegally, under either this or any other licensing scheme. It is very much about following the procedures that are there for existing licensing schemes.
I will go back online and bring in Fulton MacGregor.
Good morning to the minister and to his team. I will follow on from the last line of questioning. Licensing authorities have asked for clarity on the operation of licence transfers, provisional licensing and also on home swaps. Minister, do you intend to provide additional guidance or update regulations in those areas and, if you are, do you know when that might happen?
We have already done that on a number of occasions, Mr MacGregor. We pick up things from a number of sources. One of those was SOLAR—that is the licensing authorities and the feedback that they get on that particular point. There have been different interpretations of licensing from different local authorities so we have consulted, talked to and issued guidance to not only specific local authorities but to all local authorities. The implementation update was trying to pick that up as well and I think that we talked about who the feedback was from. It was from SOLAR, local authorities and organisations that represent the sector. We have already done that and I think that that has been outlined in the report.
We talked about the expert group; we will see what it comes out with and what it thinks that we should be looking at. I imagine that, at some stage, when the expert group reports back, we will look at the recommendations and assess them and contact local authorities and so on.
Anita Stewart has had individual discussions with local authorities on that, so I will bring her in, Mr MacGregor. We have already done the best that we can to try to get consistency while leaving flexibility for the local approach, which is of course really important. Anita, do you want to come in and give a flavour of some of the discussions that you have had with local authorities?
When the amendment order was made and came into force at the end of August, we published an update to our guidance to include sections on the processing of licence transfers and provisional licences. I do not know whether I am okay to bounce the question over to Margaret Main.
The provisions that have been made for the transfer of licences are based on the existing arrangements for liquor licensing under the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005. That is an established process.
I do not know that I have anything else to add. As has been said, the expert group will look at any of the issues around provisional licences, transfers and so on. The provisions on transfers appear to be clear in the legislation, but we are open to hearing the expert group’s views and, thereafter, looking at any need to tighten or change the regulations.
It has been well documented that licensing authorities have made it clear—they have told the committee this—that nine months is not a sufficient amount of time to process the most complex applications. Minister, what consideration are you giving to extending that deadline?
As you will probably know, there have been high numbers of applications in some areas, such as the Highlands, and there has been some anecdotal evidence about applications coming in very late in the process. We have been in discussions with individual local authorities on the general numbers, and we will also discuss with them where they are with complex cases. There are always discussions with SOLAR and individual local authorities when the level of applications is higher than we expected. There will be a degree of complexity with some cases, and such issues are discussed in our regular discussions with local authorities.
The key message to get across is that existing holders are still allowed to operate while a new application is considered, and it is in their interests to ensure that the correct information and everything else comes through as quickly as possible. If the person was an existing operator before the application was made, they can, of course, continue to operate during that time.
We have had discussions with local authorities that have had a much higher number of applications than was expected, which is obviously a good sign for the local authority.
I do not know whether Anita Stewart wants to add anything.
11:30
As the minister outlined, there is a transitional phase for existing hosts. Licensing authorities had 12 months to process the applications, and there is a nine-month period for new hosts. Once the transitional period ends, we will move into a more steady state, with the system fully embedded, but we will still talk to authorities to understand the average processing times for applications from new hosts. The nine-month period is set under the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982, and I do not believe that there are any plans to alter that, but we will keep the situation under review.
The vast majority of cases should be dealt with within that period. For complex cases that require various pieces of information, you would expect the local authority to take that into account in its timescales. The local authority should make an assessment at the start of the process, when an application is received. As Anita Stewart said, we have discussions with individual local authorities on those issues.
I was going to ask a follow-up question, but you have answered it. Thanks very much.
Our final questions come from Emma Roddick.
Minister, how do you intend to monitor and review the operation of short-term let licensing in the future? In particular, when can we expect key milestones, such as reports from the expert group and future updates from the Scottish Government?
We have touched on that, but I will clarify the position. A key issue that was raised when I was a member of this committee was on-going monitoring, which is really important. A general point to make is that there has been an on-going process of engagement, which is also really important. We have had a number of meetings with the ASSC, the STA, SOLAR, VisitScotland and the expert group, so that has almost built in informal monitoring. There have been numerous meetings and discussions.
The amendment order, which has been mentioned, demonstrated that we were listening, and we continue to do so. The expert group is very much about listening to the sector, and the implementation update included some responses. The expert group, which includes people who work in the sector, can make recommendations. That shows that we are willing to listen, and, as I said, I will write to the committee on what comes through.
Anita Stewart talked about the timescales. It is not a long period, but it is important that, as we move towards next summer, we think about whether we need to change anything as a result of what the expert group says. We will provide another implementation update in 2025.
It is important to say that it is an on-going process. We have demonstrated that we are listening. As you would expect with any Government, we have not agreed with every comment that has been made, but we have demonstrated that we continue to listen, including to the expert group.
As I said, we will come back to the committee with an update report and if there is anything else that we think we need to do. The expert group’s recommendations will be key, as it might want us to look at some things in more detail. We will consider what the report says and come back to the committee at that stage.
The implementation update does not mention the issue of local authorities not feeling able to take action against those applying for alcohol licences in an apparent attempt to avoid being captured by the short-term lets licensing orders, even when it is clear that there is no alcohol being served on the premises. Are you still looking at that problem? Will work be done to ensure that loopholes are closed?
We have been aware of some such applications being made. It comes back to the point about where things sit legally if people apply for licences when there is not anything there. The issue has been raised with us, and I will bring in Anita Stewart and Margaret Main to talk about the legal aspects.
I was just looking at the transcript of the committee’s meeting in June when that point was raised. Margaret Main’s colleague Craig McGuffie responded by saying that we would need to take wider views before deciding whether further action was needed. We will continue to talk to authorities to understand the issue, but it will fall into the bracket of the post-guidance review to understand what we have and what wider views we need to take before looking at something in that respect.
It would be quite a big change if we removed the current exclusion for people with a liquor licence under the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 and required them to have a short-term let licence. There is a need for more due diligence and work to understand whether that is required and what the impacts of that might be.
Under the current provisions, applicants are exempted from needing to obtain a short-term let licence if they already have a premises licence under the 2005 act. I agree with my colleague that we would need to weigh up the pros and cons of removing the exemption from people who had already passed a fit and proper person test and requiring them to do so again, and the proper way to do that would be through consultation on a proposed amendment.
A significant amount of time has passed since I raised the issue with you, minister. Have any steps been taken so far to get those views?
Part of that was done through the implementation update. The issues that have been raised by the committee today need to feed into the discussions with the expert group, which is chaired by VisitScotland. We will mention those issues to colleagues on the group. We have committed to look at the pros and cons of a change, and the expert group will need to consider those, too. I am happy to write to the committee on the considerations in that regard, because you have raised an important point.
I would appreciate that. Thank you.
That bring us to the end of our questions. Thank you for joining us to give us the implementation update. It has been very useful to understand what is going on and what you intend to do in the future.
As we previously agreed to take the next items in private, I close the public part of the meeting.
11:38 Meeting continued in private until 12:17.