I am very happy to take that further. First, it is worth pointing out that landlords already undertake a number of checks. It is standard for them to check people’s identity to determine whether they are who they say they are. They take up credit references. It is standard to take up references from previous landlords to determine whether the tenants are suitable people. They require proof of employment. Therefore, a number of checks are already required. Establishing that somebody has a right to be in the UK and has the appropriate documents should be done already under best practice. However, I shall address some of the practical points about how we communicate this change.
I return to the point about the robustness of the research because that was raised by a number of noble Lords. A wide range of research tools have been used, including 17 online surveys with 539 responses. They were just part of the exercise. There were 12 focus groups and 36 one-to-one interviews. In addition, a total of 332 mystery shopping encounters were completed. The evaluation has been overseen by the consultative panel to which I referred. The Home Office has not made claims about how representative the tenants’ survey was as it was administered via mailing lists and web links, and therefore we do not hold detailed responses on that. Research was carried out with landlords’ letting agents. The landlords’ survey had 137 completed responses, 114 of which related to landlords with properties in the phase one area. The tenants’ survey had 70 completed responses, 68 of which related to tenants in the phase one area. As regards the robustness of the research, multiple methodologies were used to understand the impact of the scheme in its first six months between 1 December 2014 and 31 May 2015. It reached multiple stakeholder groups—I know that is the concern of my noble friend Lord Cathcart—of landlords, letting agents, housing associations and other voluntary and community sector organisations, including local authorities. I can also provide further details about the research if that would be helpful.
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I turn now to the point raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, on subletting and lodgers. Tenants who are allowed to sublet and householders taking in lodgers—the point raised by my noble friend Lord Deben—and who conduct the right-to-rent check will be treated as the landlord under the scheme. Tenants of housing associations or other types of supported or provided housing should make sure that they are allowed to take in lodgers. If lodgers are not covered, it would create a loophole in the right-to-rent scheme.
On the point that was raised by my noble friend Lord Cathcart about foreign-sounding names, the Government have made it clear that the right-to-rent scheme is not directly against migrants, but a small minority of illegal migrants. Landlords should ensure that they conduct right-to-rent checks on all adults who have let property. The Equality and Human Rights Commission and the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission assisted in drafting the code, which is helpful in this regard. It was published in October 2014 and is titled Avoiding Unlawful Discrimination when Conducting ‘Right to Rent’ Checks in the Private Rented Residential Sector. It sets out who is covered
by the code and also specifies the nature of the discrimination that we are focusing on here and relates particularly—a number of noble Lords raised this—to race. It relates, in Great Britain, to Part 2, Chapter 2, and Part 4 of the 2010 Act and, in Northern Ireland, to Part 3 of the 1997 order: landlords must not discriminate against potential tenants because of race or on racial grounds. Race and racial grounds include colour, nationality and ethnic or national origins. Case law has established that members of particular religious groups, such as Jews or Sikhs, also form racial groups for the purposes of equality law. It should also be noted that, in Northern Ireland, the 1997 order covers the Irish Traveller community. Race discrimination may be direct or indirect. There are also prohibitions against race-related harassment and victimisation.
I turn to the point raised by my noble friend Lord Deben on using spare rooms. The right-to-rent scheme and the provisions of this Bill are not about illegal migrants only; they impact on measures to provide accommodations for those who are lawfully here. I think that this is a wider point—there are issues of unemployment or homelessness and it is right that people who are legally here in the UK should be the ones who have first call on employment and on properties to rent and to provide accommodation.
In terms of the unacceptable burden of checks, landlords are not being asked—