Councillors and Council Tax Arrears

The request was successful.

Hello,

I'm writing to you in the hope of obtaining information relating to the number of reminder letters and summons sent to elected councillors in your authority area since 2015/16.

I'd prefer to receive the information in Excel spreadsheet - xlsx or xls - format and if you cannot provide the information in full, I would like to request that you provide as much as you are able to within the cost and time limits of the Act.

If you need clarification or can suggest ways in which the request can be refined in order for it to be successful, I'd be grateful if you could contact me as soon as possible.

Please note that there is precedent for councillors to be named in relation to this issue - the High Court ruled in March 2015 that they should not have their identities protected when it comes to non-payment of council tax.

I'd like to know the following:

1. How many unpaid council tax reminders were sent to councillors elected in your authority between 2015/16 and 2017/18? Please break down by financial year?

2. How many councillors were summonsed to court or given summary warrants in the same period? Again, please break down by financial year.

3a. How many reminders were issued to the councillors named? Please break down by year.

3b. For each instance, please provide the name of each councillor, the party they represent or represented at the time and the amount of council tax owed according to sums requested in the letter. Please also provide the amount of council tax that remains outstanding.

3c. Please also state for each councillor, whether they were barred from voting on the council's budget as a result of their council tax arrears and whether any summons received resulted in a court hearing going ahead.

I'd be grateful if you could provide the information for questions 1 and 2 as totals for your authority and present the rest of the information within a spreadsheet with the following columns:

Financial Year - Authority Name - Councillor Name - Party - No of Reminders - No of Summons - Amount Owed According to Reminders - Court Hearing Y/N - Outcome of Hearing - Banned from Voting Y/N - Current Sum Outstanding

Yours faithfully,

Joanna Morris

Freedom of Information, Dorset Council

Thank you for your information request. 

 

Important note:  A new unitary Dorset Council was created from 1 April
2019 covering the areas/services of the following abolished councils –
Dorset County Council, East Dorset District Council, North Dorset District
Council, Purbeck District Council, West Dorset District Council and
Weymouth & Portland Borough Council.  You will receive one response from
Dorset Council.  Over time all information requests to Dorset Council will
be answered for the whole Dorset Council area.  However, during this
transition period, it may sometimes be necessary to provide information
based on some or all of the legacy councils. 

 

If you have submitted a request for non-personal recorded information, it
will be dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) or the
Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR).  Requests for
environmental information must be dealt with under the EIR because
environmental information is not within the scope of the FOIA.

 

You will receive a response within 20 working days in line with the
FOIA/EIR.  If the request will take any longer to process (eg, if we need
to consult third parties or seek clarification from you) we will let you
know.

 

More details about FOIA/EIR requests can be found at

[1]www.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/foi

 

If you wish to request information that is your own (or someone else’s)
personal data, it will be dealt with as a Subject Access Request (SAR) and
will be answered within one month.  More details about SAR requests can be
found at

[2]www.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/dataprotection

 

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have been taken to ensure that this electronic communication and its
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processes your information, please see www.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/416433

References

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dorset@infreemation.co.uk,

Dear Joanna Morris

We acknowledge receipt of your email to Dorset Council:

Councillor CT Arrears

If you have submitted a request under the Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA) or the Environmental Information Regulations (EIR), your request
will be considered and you will receive our response within the statutory
timescale of 20 working days.

The reference number for your email is DC/69.

Should you have any further inquiries concerning this matter, please reply
to this email leaving the subject line unchanged.

Yours sincerely,
Dorset Council

Dorset Council

Dear Ms Morris,
Thank you for your information access request: we aim to complete this within 20 working days from 12/04/2019. Please quote your reference number (61374) in further correspondence.
Yours sincerely,
The Customer Services Team at Dorset Council.

This e-mail and any files transmitted with it are intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. It may contain unclassified but sensitive or protectively marked material and should be handled accordingly. Unless you are the named addressee (or authorised to receive it for the addressee) you may not copy or use it, or disclose it to anyone else. If you have received this transmission in error please notify the sender immediately. All traffic may be subject to recording and/or monitoring in accordance with relevant legislation. Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender, except where the sender specifies and with authority, states them to be the views of Dorset Council. Dorset Council does not accept service of documents by fax or other electronic means. Virus checking: Whilst all reasonable steps have been taken to ensure that this electronic communication and its attachments whether encoded, encrypted or otherwise supplied are free from computer viruses, Dorset Council accepts no liability in respect of any loss, cost, damage or expense suffered as a result of accessing this message or any of its attachments. For information on how Dorset Council processes your information, please see www.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/416433

FOI West Dorset, Dorset Council

5 Attachments

Dear Ms Morris,

 

Information Request ref no DC0069

 

Thank you for your information request dated and received on 12 April 2019
which has been dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act 2000
(FOIA).  Please accept my apologies for the delay in providing the
response.

 

Important note:  A new unitary Dorset Council was created from 1 April
2019 covering the areas/services of the following former councils – Dorset
County Council, East Dorset District Council, North Dorset District
Council, Purbeck District Council, West Dorset District Council and
Weymouth & Portland Borough Council.  Another new unitary Bournemouth,
Christchurch and Poole Council was also created from 1 April 2019.  Over
time all information requests to Dorset Council will be answered for the
whole Dorset Council area.  However, during this transition period, it may
sometimes be necessary to provide information based on some or all of the
legacy councils. 

 

Your request

 

1. How many unpaid council tax reminders were sent to councillors elected
in your authority between 2015/16 and 2017/18? Please break down by
financial year?

 

2. How many councillors were summonsed to court or given summary warrants
in the same period? Again, please break down by financial year.

 

3a. How many reminders were issued to the councillors named? Please break
down by year.

 

3b. For each instance, please provide the name of each councillor, the
party they represent or represented at the time and the amount of council
tax owed according to sums requested in the letter.  Please also provide
the amount of council tax that remains outstanding.

 

3c. Please also state for each councillor, whether they were barred from
voting on the council's budget as a result of their council tax arrears
and whether any summons received resulted in a court hearing going ahead.

 

I'd be grateful if you could provide the information for questions 1 and 2
as totals for your authority and present the rest of the information
within a spreadsheet with the following columns:

 

Financial Year - Authority Name - Councillor Name - Party - No of
Reminders - No of Summons - Amount Owed According to Reminders - Court
Hearing Y/N - Outcome of Hearing - Banned from Voting Y/N - Current Sum
Outstanding

 

Our response

 

Our response to your request is below and attached.  Please see response
for each area.

 

Please note that we have only named councillors in the attachments who
received a summons, in accordance with the Upper Tribunal Appeal No
GIA/4597/2014 (signed 10 March 2016) which can be viewed at
[1]https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk...
Therefore the names of councillors who received reminders and final
notices only have been redacted in the attachments under FOIA Section 40
because this is their personal data and to disclose their names would
breach data protection principles. Further explanation is provided below.

 

The term “personal data” is defined in section 3(2) of the Data Protection
Act 2018 (DPA) as “any information relating to an identified or
identifiable living individual (subject to section 3(14(c))”.  Section
3(3) of the DPA defines an “identifiable living individual” as “a living
individual who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by
reference to (a) an identifier such as a name, an identification number,
location data or an online identifier, or (b) one or more factors specific
to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or
social identity of the individual.” 

 

Under Section 40(3A)(a) of the FOIA if disclosure of personal data would
breach any of the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or Section 34(1) of the DPA,
then the personal data is exempt from disclosure under FOIA. 

 

The first data protection principle is that personal data must be
processed lawfully, fairly and transparently.  The lawfulness of the
processing is to be determined by reference to Article 6(1) of the GDPR as
applied by section 40(8) of the FOIA. Processing is only lawful to the
extent that:

 

a)      the data subject has given consent to the processing of his or her
personal data for one or more specific purposes;

b)      processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which
the data subject is party or in order to take steps at the request of the
data subject prior to entering into a contract;

c)       processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to
which the controller is subject;

d)      processing is necessary in order to protect the vital interests of
the data subject or of another natural person;

e)      processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out
in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in
the controller;

f)       processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate
interests pursued by the controller or by a third party, except where such
interests are overridden by the interests or fundamental rights and
freedoms of the data subject which require protection of personal data, in
particular where the data subject is a child.

 

Disclosing information as part of a Freedom of Information request is
effectively disclosing it “to the world”.  It would not be within a
person’s normal expectations to have their personal data disclosed to the
world in this way.  It would be unwarranted and unfair and would be likely
to cause them harm or distress. 

 

If you are unhappy with the way your request has been handled, you may ask
for an internal review. Please email [2][email address] or
write to the FOI team at South Walks House, South Walks Road, Dorchester,
Dorset, DT1 1UZ. if you wish to request a review. If you are not content
with the outcome of the internal review, you then 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 or
[3]https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/.

 

The copyright in any information provided may belong to another person and
is protected under the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988. Although
this does not stop us from copying information to you, it means that
unless the Act allows you to copy the information, you must not copy it
without the permission of the person who owns the copyright.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Beth Thomas

Customer Service Advisor

Customer Services

 

01305 251010

[4][email address]

[5]dorsetcouncil.gov.uk

 

To receive the latest news from Dorset Council by email, visit

[6]dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/e-newsletter

 

This e-mail and any files transmitted with it are intended solely for the
use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. It may contain
unclassified but sensitive or protectively marked material and should be
handled accordingly. Unless you are the named addressee (or authorised to
receive it for the addressee) you may not copy or use it, or disclose it
to anyone else. If you have received this transmission in error please
notify the sender immediately. All traffic may be subject to recording
and/or monitoring in accordance with relevant legislation. Any views
expressed in this message are those of the individual sender, except where
the sender specifies and with authority, states them to be the views of
Dorset Council. Dorset Council does not accept service of documents by fax
or other electronic means. Virus checking: Whilst all reasonable steps
have been taken to ensure that this electronic communication and its
attachments whether encoded, encrypted or otherwise supplied are free from
computer viruses, Dorset Council accepts no liability in respect of any
loss, cost, damage or expense suffered as a result of accessing this
message or any of its attachments. For information on how Dorset Council
processes your information, please see www.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/416433

References

Visible links
1. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk...
2. mailto:[email address]
3. https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/
4. mailto:[email address]
5. https://www.dorsetforyou.gov.uk/home.aspx
6. https://dorsetcouncil.us1.list-manage.co...