retrospective council tax charges

Dear Ms Bennett,

I acknowledge receipt of your email which is receiving attention.

I shall contact you again when I am in a position to respond more fully
to your request.

Yours sincerely,

Sandra Hazarika
For Corporate Freedom of Information Officer
North Lanarkshire Council
Civic Centre
Windmillhill Street
Motherwell
ML1 1AB
(01698) 302232

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Dear Ms. Bennett,

I refer again to your e-mail dated 5 May 2009 seeking information on
retrospective Council Tax charges.

Having investigated, I regret to advise you that there is no database
which records the detail of the information you seek, and in terms of
Section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 I must
advise you that the information as sought, is not held.

By way of some explanation, retrospective changes to Council Tax are
applied for many reasons such as:- Council Tax Band increases, amendment
of discount due to changes in household consumption or failure to return
a discount review form, late entries to the Valuation Roll, and amending
existing liability details due to changes in tenancy or the sale of a
property. These changes are a daily occurrence, and it is not possible
to differentiate between retrospective increases in Council Tax due to
changes in exemption from any other increases.

Council Tax exemption is awarded based on information supplied by the
Council Tax payer and, as above, such causes as authority error are not
separately recorded on the database. Furthermore, benefit/exemption can
be granted retrospectively for any backdated period of Council Tax
liability provided that the appropriate documentation is received and
the cause for backdating complies with the legislation.

I can advise that North Lanarkshire Council, having regard to the
provisions of Section 21 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act
2002, has established a procedure whereby any person who has requested
information and is in any way dissatisfied with the decision on that
request, can require a review of that decision by writing to the
Executive Director of Corporate Services, Civic Centre, Windmillhill
Street, Motherwell ML1 1AB. Accordingly, if you are dissatisfied with
this decision and seek such review please write to the Executive
Director of Corporate Services.

I would advise, also, that in terms of Section 47 of the Act a person
who is dissatisfied with a notice given by the local authority under
Section 21 of the Act - ie. a notice following a review of a decision by
a local authority, or by the failure of a local authority to give such a
notice - may make application to the Scottish Information Commissioner
for a decision as to whether, in any respect specified in that
application, the request for information to which the requirement
relates has been dealt with in accordance with the Act. Such an
application must be in writing or in another form which, by reason of it
having some permanency is capable of being used for subsequent reference
- for example a recording made in audio or video tape - must state the
name of the applicant and an address for correspondence and must specify
the request for information to which the requirement for review relates,
the matter which gave rise to the applicant's dissatisfaction with the
original decision of the local authority and the matter which gives rise
to the applicant's dissatisfaction with the decision on review by the
local authority or the failure of the local authority to issue such a
decision. The Scottish Information Commissioner can be contacted as
follows:-

Scottish Information Commissioner
Kinburn Castle
Doubledykes Road
St. Andrew's
KY16 9DS

I hope this information is sufficient for your purpose. If, however,
you require further information - or I can assist in any other way -
please let me know.

Yours sincerely,

Jacqueline Keachie
For Corporate Freedom of Information Officer
North Lanarkshire Council
Civic Centre
Windmillhill Street
Motherwell
ML1 1AB
(01698) 302232

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Dear Ms Bennett,

I refer to your e-mail of 1 June - in particular, to your request for a
review of the response to your Freedom of Information request regarding
retrospective Council Tax charges - and would advise that the matter has
been passed to me in order that I might fully consider the matter.

In doing so, I have noted that your initial request sought:-

* the number of instances where the Council has applied Council Tax
charges retrospectively in the past six years
* the reason in each instance
* the period covered in each case
* how did the Council discover the error
* how much money each was liable to pay back
* was each individual given the opportunity of contesting the arrears in
court
* what steps did the Council take to recover arrears
* details of any complaints by any individual concerned
* outcome of complaints
* right of appeal.

I have, further noted that, in response, Ms Keachie on behalf of the
Council's Corporate Freedom of Information Officer advised that there is
no database which records the detail of the information you seek - and
concluded that, in terms of Section 17 of the Freedom of Information
(Scotland) Act 2002, she required to advise you that the information as
sought was not held.

I have noted, also, that she further advanced an explanation giving
background to the variety of reasons which can lead to retrospective
changes to Council Tax - and indicated that those changes are not
categorised by reason.

I have further noted all you say in your e-mail of 1 June.

Having now fully considered the matter I can confirm that the position is
as outlined in Ms Keachie's e-mail: there are very many instances of
retrospective change to Council Tax and no separate database exists of
such, if any, of these as are attributable to error on the part of the
Council. To that extent I can readily appreciate why Ms Keachie came to
the conclusion that it was necessary in terms of Section 17 of the Act to
advise you that the information is not held.

That being said, however, the Council does undoubtedly hold records of all
instances in which retrospective changes to Council Tax are applied - and
scrutiny of each of those records would, no doubt, enable the Council to
compile the information you seek. That, however, would require dedicated
scrutiny of each individual case to extract the necessary information.
That, as you will appreciate, would be highly labour intensive and I have
to advise that the cost of so doing would exceed the amount prescribed for
the purposes of Section 12 of the Act by the regulations made by Scottish
Ministers.

Against that background I must advise that, to the extent that no separate
database exists the information is, indeed, not held and that, as the cost
of compiling the information exceeds the prescribed amount, the exemption
in Section 12 of the Act is applicable.

Having reached that conclusion, I required to consider whether the public
interest in disclosing the information outweighed that in maintaining the
exemptions - and, having regard to the cost pressures on local government
as a whole and North Lanarkshire Council in particular and the extent of
staff time and costs which would be involved, I was forced to the
conclusion that the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs
that in disclosing the information.

I am sorry that I cannot be more helpful on this occasion - and I confirm
that, if you were to feel it possible to focus your request more closely,
I should certainly arrange to investigate to ascertain if it would be
possible to provide you with information which would assist you. If you
consider that this would be possible, please let me know.

Otherwise, I can confirm that in terms of Section 47 of the Freedom of
Information (Scotland) Act 2002 a person who is dissatisfied with a notice
given by a local authority under Section 21 of the Act - i.e. a notice
following a review of a decision by a local authority - may make
application to the Scottish Information Commissioner for a decision as to
whether, in any respect specified in that application, the request for
information to which the requirement relates has been dealt with in
accordance with the Act. This letter does constitute a notice given by
North Lanarkshire Council under Section 21 of the Act, and the Scottish
Information Commissioner can be contacted as follows

Scottish Information Commissioner

Kinburn Castle

Doubledykes Road

St. Andrews

Fife

KY16 9DS.

I must advise, also, that Section 56 of the Freedom of Information
(Scotland) Act 2002 makes provision for an appeal, on point of law, to the
Court of Session against a decision made by the Scottish Information
Commissioner under Subsection 2 of Section 49 by the person who applied
for that decision - and against a decision by the Commissioner under
Subsection 3(b) of that section by the person who applied for that
decision.

Yours sincerely,

John Fleming
Head of Central Services

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