I share your pain, convener.
Section 35 of the 2011 act is about to be commenced. The draft Private Rented Housing Panel (Landlord Applications) (Scotland) Regulations 2015 are being considered by the Infrastructure and Capital Investment Committee and, subject to parliamentary approval, will come into force on 1 December this year.
As a result of the commencement of section 35 of the 2011 act, functions will be conferred directly on the PRHP rather than the PRHC. It is therefore necessary to amend schedule 1 to the Tribunals (Scotland) Act 2014 to include the PRHP to enable the functions of the panel to transfer into the Scottish tribunals along with those of the PRHC, which, as I said, is already listed in that schedule.
As the HOHP is the PRHP, albeit in another guise, a similar amendment is also necessary to include the HOHP—the official reporters will be glad to know that I will pass my notes to them at the end of the meeting.
For the reasons that I have outlined, the second instrument before the committee—the draft Scottish Tribunals (Administrative Support for Listed Tribunals) Order 2015—requires us to amend the Courts Reform (Scotland) Act 2014, schedule 4 to which lists the tribunals to which the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service may provide administrative support. By making the instrument, we will allow the SCTS to continue to provide administrative support for the two panels as well as for the two committees.
We undertook a 12-week consultation on the instruments, which was combined with a consultation on the proposed structure of the first-tier tribunal, on which, as members will see from the paper that I have provided, I plan to bring forward an instrument for consideration at a later date.
There were nine responses from individuals and organisations, including the Law Society of Scotland and the Scottish tribunals and administrative justice advisory committee. All responses focused only on the structure of the first-tier tribunal. There were no responses on the policy or the drafting of the instruments.
In conclusion, these technical instruments are required to allow the SCTS to continue to provide administration for the PRHP and the HOHP when section 35 of the Private Rented Housing (Scotland) Act 2011 is commenced on 1 December this year. They will also ensure that the functions of the panels can transfer into the Scottish tribunals as planned in September 2016.
I thank you for your patience, convener, and I hope that your headache is relieved.