Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022 - 2nd proposed extension: statement of reasons

Annex C

Duty to provide information and advice to tenants

1. Section 3 of the Act requires that Scottish Ministers must take steps to ensure that tenants affected by the provisions of Part 1 receive appropriate information, advice and support.

2. In recognition of this, a wide range of information has been published for both private, social and student tenants on the Scottish Government website, as follows:

• information for private tenants on the eviction moratorium and rent cap;
• information on the emergency measures for social housing tenants; and
• information on the emergency measures for students living in purpose built student accommodation and student halls (in addition, links to this page was also provided via the Student Information Scotland website).

3. To reflect the changes to the Act that came into force on 1 April 2023, all relevant pages providing information to tenants were fully updated.

4. Communication activity to help drive up awareness of tenants new rights has continued to be taken forward by the Scottish Government at regular intervals and key points of change, including:

• a Scottish Government news release and social media activity in relation to our announcement in January to seek to extend the emergency measures from 1 April and vary the rent cap for the private rented sector;
• a further news release and social media activity when the Parliament approved the extension of the emergency measures;
• on 1 April, when the changes to the emergency Act came into force, the following awareness raising activity took place:
• direct email communication with all registered landlords via local authorities took place;
• direct email communication with all registered letting agents; and
• engagement with the three Tenancy Deposit Schemes took place, to facilitate dissemination of information with tenants registered to their relevant newsletters – raising awareness and providing further information on the changes to the emergency measures.

5. In May, the Scottish Government undertook further social media activity to promote awareness of the emergency Act and tenants' rights. Information on the rent cap and evictions mortarium provisions within the Act, as well information about financial support for tenants featured in a series of posts published on Scottish Government Twitter channels.