Dear Mr Cant

Re: - Request for Information - Council Tax - Reference Number:  COR/CTAX/FOI/6068

Thank you for your request for information, which was received by Manchester City Council on 8 October 2009 and has been considered under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FoIA).

I set out below the 20 requests for information that you have made and the Council's response to these requests:

Can I have for each year since 2000, listed years, the total number of the following:

1. Number of Council Tax bills sent.

2. Number of summons.

3. Number of Liability Orders gained for accounts that are for the current Council Tax period.

4. Court Fund account (totals collected in respect of Court Charges across all accounts you gain Liability Orders on) for each year.

5. Cost paid to Court each year (or cost per Liability Order).

6. Cases sent to bailiffs.

7. Total collected by bailiffs.

8. An indication as to what the Court Fund's collection accounts pays for.

9. An indication to any policy that you have in place to ensure you protect vulnerable customers from the Court Action to the bailiffs.

10. Any and all agreed rates and conditions that your instructed bailiff should maintain.

Solace

11. Set up as a council. Are you set up as a full council or a special executive.

12. Use of Solace in employment of staff and general interaction with your council. Can I have a list of every position in your council where you have used Solace recommendations. Please can I have the wages before the recommendation and the wages after the recommendation and the date of change. Also on this note, can I have a list of any other financial transactions between your council and Solace.

Can you list for each year since 2000, the following:

13. Bankruptcy threatened.

14. Bankruptcy action started.

15. Bankruptcy action completed.

16. What is the total costs for each of the above actions, (if cost-able).

17. How many attachment of earnings do you achieve each year.

18. Please list all further actions taken between liability orders and bankruptcy that the council tax do against the tax payers each year.

19. Please list any reviews that you have done on the above figures and point to the outcome.

20. What is the total costs for each of the above actions, (if cost-able).

It is estimated that the statutory cost limit of £450 (which is calculated as being approximately 2.5 days of a council officer's time to determine whether the Council holds the information, locate, retrieve and extract the information) will be exceeded if the Council supplied the requested information to you. If you require more information about the Council's Fees & Charges Policy, this may be downloaded from http://www.manchester.gov.uk/freedom/request/. If you do not have internet access and require a paper copy, please let me know.

The FoIA Act does not oblige us to comply with requests that exceed this amount and therefore I am not able to comply with your current request.

If you are able to modify or narrow the scope of your request, it may be possible to provide some information without exceeding the statutory limit.

If you require any advice or assistance in doing this, please contact me on the number above.

It is likely that the Council would be able to provide you with some or all of the requested information if you were to narrow the time period of your request so that it related to the period from the 1 April 2006 onwards. This is because the Council had a new computer system installed early in 2006 and as a result it will be easier for the Council to provide you with some or all of the requested information for the financial years running from 1 April 2006 onwards.

If you decide to modify/narrow the scope of your request, please note this will be treated as a new request and dealt with in accordance with the time limits specified in FoIA. I look forward to hearing from you. If I do not hear from you within three months of the date of this letter, I will assume that you do not wish to submit a revised request and will close my file.

Please note if you are not satisfied with this response you may ask for an internal review. If you wish to complain you should contact me in the first instance. If you require more information about the Council's access to information complaints procedure this is available at section 25 of the Council's Code of Practice which can be downloaded from:

http://www.manchester.gov.uk/freedom/request/.

If you do not have internet access and require a paper copy, please let me know.

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision.

The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Tel: 01625 545700

Fax: 01625 524510

http://www.ico.gov.uk/

If you have any queries about this letter please contact me. Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

Yours sincerely

Charles Metcalfe

Charles Metcalfe

Revenues Manager