Council Tax- Application to Commit (Regs. 47 and 48, CTAE Regs. 1992). Details of paperwork and payments filed with the court

The request was successful.

Dear Lewisham Borough Council,
Please provide the following information in respect of the last 3 Applications to Commit made prior to the beginning of the current financial year (ie before 1st April 2018).Please give the scheduled court date for each application
1) Whether the papers filed at court included:
i) Copy of each Liability Order for (alleged) CT debt covered in the application

ii) Copy of bailiff return document for each of the CT years claimed in the application

iii) Any statement as to the availability of the service of the Duty Solicitor to the (alleged) CT debtor at court

iv) Any statement as to the availability of legal aid to the (alleged) CT debtor at court

2) Whether the papers sent to the (alleged) CT debtor included:
i) Copy of each Liability Order for (alleged) CT debt covered in the application

ii) ii) Copy of bailiff return document for each of the CT years claimed in the application

iii) a) Any statement as to the availability of the service of the Duty Solicitor to the (alleged) CT debtor at court
b) Any statement as to the availability of legal aid to the (alleged) CT debtor at court

iv) v) Copy of summons-giving place of hearing, date and time, what application is for and whether the summons specifically says that an application is being made to obtain a Warrant for Imprisonment.
3) i) By what means the application/summons is sent to the CT debtor. If sent by Post,whether it is sent by First Class or Second Class post
ii) Whether a Statement of Service is filed with the court giving the service details.
4) Whether the court fee for the application/summons was paid in full and up-front to the court when the papers were filed at court

3) Please provide a copy of the “summons” or letter requiring attendance at court sent to each of the 3 persons imprisoned, with all personal information redacted.

Yours faithfully,

BERT GEISHERD

Foi, Customer, Lewisham Borough Council

Dear Mr Geisherd
 
Re: Freedom of Information Act 2000
Environmental Information Regulations 2004
Reference No: 814033
 
Thank you for your recent request for information from the London Borough
of Lewisham. Your request is being handled under either the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 or the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.
 
Your request is being considered and you will receive a response within
the statutory timescale of 20 working days, subject to the application of
any exemptions/exceptions. Where consideration is being given to
exemptions/exceptions, the 20 working day timescale may be extended to a
period considered reasonable depending on the nature and circumstances of
your request. In such cases you will be notified and, where possible, a
revised time-scale will be indicated. In all cases we shall attempt to
deal with your request at the earliest opportunity.
 
There may be a fee payable for the retrieval, collation and provision of
the information requested where the request exceeds the statutory limit or
where disbursements exceed £10. In such cases you will be informed in
writing and your request will be suspended until we receive payment from
you or your request is modified and/or reduced.
 
Your request may require either full or partial transfer to another public
authority. You will be informed if your request is transferred. If we are
unable to provide you with the information requested we will notify you of
this together with the reason(s) why and details of how you may appeal (if
appropriate). Please note that the directorate team may contact you for
further information where we believe that the request is not significantly
clear for us to respond fully.
 
Kind Regards,
 
Corporate Complaints and Casework Team
 

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Foi, Customer, Lewisham Borough Council

Dear Bert Geisherd
 
Re: Freedom of Information Act 2000.
 
Thank you for your request for information held by London Borough of
Lewisham. I have attached your original request below.
 
The information you have requested is not held.
 
The last application to commit made by the Council was 11 years ago. We no
longer hold any of the requested information or documentation due to the
time period that has since passed. Please note that although this is a
process available to us, it is not a form of recovery action that Lewisham
Council currently pursues.
 
We consider that the specific level of data you requested cannot be
retrieved by way of a reasonable search in the relevant electronic
database, we therefore, confirm that the requested information is not
held. The Information Commissioner’s Office offers guidance on determining
if information is held or not at the following link:
[1]http://ico.org.uk/for_organisations/guid...
 
We consider that the requested information is not held because:

 1. The requested information is not held in the form of a list or
schedule;
 2. Compiling the requested information does not involve a simple manual
manipulation of information held in files;
 3. The requested information cannot be extracted from an electronic
database by searching it in the form of a query.

We hope you will find this information helpful.
 
You are free to use the information provided for your own purposes,
including any non-commercial research you are doing and for the purposes
of news reporting. Any other re-use, for example commercial publication,
requires the permission of the copyright holder. You may apply for
permission to re-use this information by submitting a request to
[2][email address]
You have a right of appeal against this response which you can exercise by
writing to: Information Governance – 1st floor Town Hall Chambers,
Catford, London. SE6 4RU. Or at: [3][email address]
 
This must be requested within 40 working days of the date of this
response.
 
If you remain dissatisfied after receiving this decision, you then also
have a further right of appeal, which you can make in writing, stating
your reasons to the regulating body, the Information Commissioner's
Office. Contact details: [4]http://www.ico.gov.uk/ or 0303 123 1113 or
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.
 
Yours sincerely
 
Corporate Complaints & Casework Team
London Borough of Lewisham
Address 5^th Floor Laurence House, 1 Catford Road, London, SE6 4RU.
Phone 020 8314 6097
Email  [5][email address]
 
 

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Dear Sir
Thank you very much indeed for your very helpful response. A number of local authorities no longer use reg.47 Application to Commit- but one purpose of a "round robin" FOI was to determine which local authorities used this process and which did not. Thus, although your answer at first sight seems to be a rebuttal or refusal, it is actually exactly what was wanted. Your response that the procedure has not been used for 11 years is a perfect response.
Thank you for the time and trouble you have taken on this matter

Yours sincerely,

BERT GEISHERD

Foi, Customer, Lewisham Borough Council

Dear Bert

I am pleased to hear we have been of assistance.

Kind Regards

Hanna

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