Housing (Scotland) Bill: child rights and wellbeing impact assessment

Introduction

This document sets out a summary of the results from the Child Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessment (“CRWIA”) carried out in respect of the policies within the Housing (Scotland) Bill (“the Bill”). The scope of this CRWIA is focused on the possible impacts on children and young people that may occur from implementing the policy provisions within the Bill.

If the Bill is passed by Parliament, the Scottish Government intends to make regulations and to provide guidance following consultation with stakeholders to support implementation. The Bill contains a number of powers to make further provision via regulations. These provisions themselves have no immediate impact on children and young people; any potential impact would come at the later point when regulations are being made under these powers. We will continue to consider the impact on children and young people in line with legal CRWIA requirements as we develop the details of the regulations, taking account of this CRWIA, further ongoing research, and stakeholder engagement.

Overall, the Bill contains a package of reforms which will help ensure people have a safe, secure, and affordable place to live. It also helps to deliver the Scottish Government’s ‘New Deal for Tenants’^[1] and some aspects of ‘Housing to 2040’^[2], while contributing to the ambition to end homelessness in Scotland.

Further information about the background and the policy intention behind the Bill is set out in the Policy Memorandum which accompanies the Bill. The Bill, Policy Memorandum and other accompanying documents are available from the Scottish Parliament website^[3]. More detailed information on the CRWIA on the rented sector reform, prevention of homelessness and mobile homes pitch fee uprating have also been published on the Scottish Government website. Links to those publications are included within this summary.