Minimum period for applications to remain in force - suspensions under section 20B of the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987: statutory guidance

23. Monitoring Suspensions

23.1 It is important that landlords have an effective monitoring system in place to manage suspensions, to make sure that suspensions are regularly reviewed and are lifted when the time period has elapsed. Landlords also need to monitor their suspensions and manage them in an accountable and transparent way and make sure that suspensions are operating satisfactorily and in line with legislation. Landlords should therefore want to monitor, for section 20B suspensions and those under their non-statutory suspensions policies:

• the number of applications suspended, and for what reason;
• the number of reviews of suspensions requested immediately by applicants and their outcomes;
• the number of appeals against section 20B suspensions and their outcomes; and
• the number of subsequent requests for reviews of suspensions, or reviews initiated by the landlord, and their outcomes.

23.2 There is no legal requirement to monitor the gender, age, ethnicity and disability of suspended applicants but it might be helpful to do this, in order to gather information on how the suspensions policy impacts on different groups of people and to ensure it is operating fairly.