Clause 77 - Licence conditions
Housing Bill
3:00 pm
Mr John Hayes (South Holland and The Deepings, Conservative)
I am sure that the hon. Gentleman is far too intelligent to be unable to make that distinction. If someone is invited to a home as a visitor, it is not unreasonable for an occupier to have some responsibility for what they do. That is the common experience of most people who invite visitors to their home, be they friends, acquaintances or family members. One's relationship with another occupier in the same premises is entirely different. The proper duty and responsibility in respect of visitors do not necessarily extend to other occupiers, who might not agree with one's view of what is responsible. There is an essential difference between those two relationships.
The hon. Gentleman made a forceful point with respect to visitors, but it would be difficult to enforce proposed new sub-paragraph (ii), which would mean that one occupier should have responsibility for another. That would be impossible for any authority to implement. He has not intervened to clarify the point further, so on that basis I am at pains to point
out that, although we have sympathy for the principle of the amendment, the detail is deeply flawed.