Member

Lords amendments 26 and 27 would require local authorities to meet the criminal, rather than the civil, standard of proof when imposing penalties for rental discrimination and rental bidding breaches. The Government are absolutely clear that the civil standard, which is aligned with similar legislation, such as the wider anti-discrimination provisions of the Equality Act 2010, is the appropriate one to apply in these circumstances. Requiring local authorities to meet the more stringent criminal standard of proof for provisions that cannot lead to a criminal offence where the conduct persists would make local authority enforcement extremely challenging, and would be prohibitively resource-intensive. We cannot accept the amendments for those reasons, and I urge the House to reject them.