No costs are applied for obtaining a liability order

The request was partially successful.

Dear North East Lincolnshire Council,

I refer to NELC's website, the breakdown of costs and the statement:
http://www.nelincs.gov.uk/resident/counc...

"The cost of issuing a summons is currently £70, we do not apply further costs for the issuing of a liability order."

The breakdown of how the summons cost was calculated in accordance with the DCLG guidance shows a figure of £74 as the cost of issuing a summons (please see note below*).

It has been noted that regulation 34(5)(b) of the Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1992 provides that a billing authority may recover costs which it reasonably incurs for instituting the complaint (the summons). Also, regulation 34(7)(b) / 34(8) provide that a billing authority may recover costs (£36,597) additional to those it reasonably incurs for instituting the complaint in respect of making the application for a liability order at the Magistrates' court hearing.

9,396 summons were requested in 2012/13 meaning that the £4 unrecoverable element for each summons amounts to £37,584 over a year. Added to the £36,597 which the council effectively waives (liability order), then a total £74,181 is not recovered by the authority which the law allows it to by way of court costs.

Q.1 Where in the authority's budget does this estimated £74k loss appear.

Q.2 Do residents of North East Lincolnshire subsidise this loss by having to pay additional council tax.

*NOTE:

The number of summons issued in 2012/13 has been recorded at 9,984 previously by NELC and would if the correct figure, return a sum of £69.65 as the cost of issuing a summons if calculated in the same way.

Yours faithfully,

R. Suggitt

PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear  Sir or Madam

 

I am pleased to acknowledge your request for information, which has been
allocated the reference number, NEL/6428/1314

 

Your request has been passed to the relevant department for processing and
you can expect your response within the 20 working day limit. If it will
take us longer than 20 working days to respond to you, we will inform you
and provide you with the expected date for receiving a response.

 

Further information about how we will deal with your Freedom of
Information requests is available on our website at:

[1]http://www.nelincs.gov.uk/council/the-co....

 

Please feel free to contact me if you require any further information or
assistance quoting the reference number above.

 

Yours sincerely on behalf of North East Lincolnshire Council

 

 

Feedback Officer

Resources Directorate

Email: [2][North East Lincolnshire Council request email]

 

show quoted sections

PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear Sir / Madam 

 

Thank you for your information request, reference number 6428/1314.

 

I wish to confirm that North East Lincolnshire Council holds the following
information:

 

Q.1 Where in the authority's budget does this estimated £74k loss appear.

 

The budgets for this service are held within the Income and Payments
Service within the Council’s Resources Directorate.

 

Q.2 Do residents of North East Lincolnshire subsidise this loss by having
to pay additional council tax.

 

Any spend that is not fully covered by income would result in an
additional budget requirement that will have to be funded. The Council’s
spend is funded by a number of sources, including council tax. Other
funding used to support the Council’s budget includes central government
grants and  income from fees and charges.

 

If you are unhappy with the response you have received, you have the right
to request an internal review by the Council. If following this you are
still dissatisfied you may contact the Office of the Information
Commissioner. If you wish to request an internal review, please contact me
and I will make the necessary arrangements.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Feedback Officer

 

North East Lincolnshire Council

 

 

 

show quoted sections

Dear North East Lincolnshire Council,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of North East Lincolnshire Council's handling of my FOI request 'No costs are applied for obtaining a liability order'.

The response appears to have been given with the assumption that the information was requested with no purpose other than for something to do. There is nothing informative in the answers given and the response appears to have been worded defensively and with no real intention to release information it held.

Q.1 Where in the authority's budget does this estimated £74k loss appear.

Q.2 Do residents of North East Lincolnshire subsidise this loss by having to pay additional council tax.

Would the council care to comment on the discrepancy highlighted in the request:

i.e

"*NOTE:

The number of summons issued in 2012/13 has been recorded at 9,984 previously by NELC and would if the correct figure, return a sum of £69.65 as the cost of issuing a summons if calculated in the same way."

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/n...

Yours faithfully,

R. Suggitt

PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear R. Suggitt

I am pleased to acknowledge your request for an Internal review of Freedom of Information request 6428_1314.

Your request has been passed to the relevant department for processing and you can expect your response within the 20 working day limit. If it will take us longer than 20 working days to respond to you, we will inform you of this and provide you with the expected date for receiving a response.

Further information about how we will deal with your Freedom of Information requests is available on our website at: http://www.nelincs.gov.uk/council/the-co....

Please feel free to contact me if you require any further information or assistance quoting the reference number above.

Yours sincerely on behalf of North East Lincolnshire Council

Feedback Officer
Resources Directorate

show quoted sections

PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear Mr Suggitt

Further to your request an Internal Review has taken place into North East
Lincolnshire Council's handling of your information request 6428/1314
concerning the funding of costs in respect of liability orders.

I have reviewed the response provided to you and the handling of your
request in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act and find:

 1. That your request was responded to within the statutory time of 20
working days;

 

 2. That you were provided with the information you asked for available
under the Freedom of Information Act;

 

 3. That you were informed whether or not the information you asked for
was held by North East Lincolnshire Council;

 

 4. That your response provided you with your rights of appeal. 

 

I am therefore satisfied that the Council has acted in accordance with the
Freedom of Information Act in the handling of your request.

In your request for an Internal Review you stated: The response appears to
have been given with the assumption that the information was requested
with no purpose other than for something to do. There is nothing
informative in the answers given and the response appears to have been
worded defensively and with no real intention to release information it
held.

I apologise if the response appeared defensive, as this wasn’t the
intention. The costs are, as per the response given, recorded as part of
the budget set in managing the Council’s Income and Payments Service. All
costs the Council incurs are added together to calculate a budget
requirement that then has to be funded.

Funding is provided to meet this overall budget requirement from a number
of sources, which includes council tax, but which also includes grants
from central government and income from fees and charges. The council tax
funding is not directly linked to individual items of spend, as a result.

It can be confirmed, therefore, that any shortfall will be subsidised
through Council funding, which includes income from council tax.   

I trust that this Internal Review answers your queries in relation to your
request, and clarifies that your request has been handled in accordance
with the Freedom of Information Act. 

If you remain dissatisfied with the Council’s handling of your request, or
the decision of the internal review you can request an independent review
by contacting the Information Commissioner's Office at Wycliffe House,
Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

Yours sincerely on behalf of North East Lincolnshire Council

Paul Allen

Finance Service Manager

 

 

show quoted sections

Dear PPD - FOI,

With reference to your 7 January 2014 response:

"Funding is provided to meet this overall budget requirement from a number of sources, which includes council tax, but which also includes grants from central government and income from fees and charges."

Subject to interpreting the above correctly, the costs sought through the Magistrates' court are deemed part of the authority's income from fees and charges which make up its "Funding " implying that court proceedings are being exploited to fund extra income for the council. This would seem particularly the case when you consider that costs are ordered by the court to compensate the party judged to have been put to unnecessary expense and inconvenience, and, that many of the thousands of complaints annually relate to taxpayers who present no risk of non-payment.

I assume the procedure more than helps funding as required to meet the budget of the Magistrates' court, or HMCTS.

Does the law allow exploiting costs orders in bulk prosecutions via the Magistrates' court to fund government departments such as local authorities and courts?

Please note my observation which has been overlooked on the original request and the review:

"The number of summons issued in 2012/13 has been recorded at 9,984 previously by NELC and would if the correct figure, return a sum of £69.65 as the cost of issuing a summons if calculated in the same way."

Yours sincerely,

R. Suggitt

PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear Mr Suggitt
 
Thank you for your further correspondence regarding information request
6428_1314.
 
In order to be able to respond to your request we require some further
clarification from you. It is unclear what recorded information you wish
North East Lincolnshire Council to provide.
 
Please could you clearly state what recorded information you would like
North East Lincolnshire Council to provide?
 
If your intention was to provide comment and engage in debate this should
be taken up directly with the Local Taxation and Benefits Service as this
type of correspondence is not included within the scope of the Freedom of
information act. For your information contact details of the Council Tax
Liability and Billing team have been provided below:
 

Contact: Council Tax Liability and Billing team (Telephone and postal
enquiries only )
Address: Civic Offices, Knoll Street, Cleethorpes, NE Lincolnshire ,
DN35 8LN
Telephone: 01472 323840
Fax: 01472 324322
Email: [1][email address]

 
 
Under the Freedom of Information Act, the 20 working days allowed for
responding to your request will not begin until the clarification is
received.
 
Please quote the above reference number in all your correspondence.
 
Please feel free to contact me if you require any further information or
wish to discuss this matter.
 
Yours sincerely on behalf of North East Lincolnshire Council
 
Feedback Officer
Resources Directorate
 
 

show quoted sections

Dear PPD - FOI,

I would like the council to confirm which are the correct figures relating to the number of summons issued (asked for but overlooked). This is one of the main factors that influenced the council's standard summons costs imposed on Council Tax payers as per its calculation.

The comments were born out of disbelief that court costs appeared to be accounted for as income to fund offsetting the Council’s Income and Payments Service budget. Is it not reasonable that after implying this the council would respond appropriately to the concerns it obviously raises?

Yours sincerely,

R. Suggitt

Robinson, Michael (Gov Connect),

Protective Marking: not protectively marked
Michael Robinson, Business Support Officer, Resources,Civic Offices, Knoll Street, Cleethorpes, DN35 8LN
Tel: 5143 Email: [email address]
The information in this message, including any attachments, may be confidential or privileged and is for the use of the named recipient only. If you are not the named or intended recipient, you may not copy, distribute, or deliver this message to anyone, or take action in reliance on it. If you receive this message in error, please contact the sender immediately and delete it from your system.
 Please don't print this e-mail unless you really need to

show quoted sections

PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear R Suggitt

 

I am pleased to acknowledge your request for information, which has been
allocated the reference number 6596_1314

Your request has been passed to the relevant department for processing and
you can expect your response within the 20 working day limit. If it will
take us longer than 20 working days to respond to you, we will inform you
of this and provide you with the expected date for receiving a response.

Further information about how we will deal with your Freedom of
Information requests is available on our website at:
[1]http://www.nelincs.gov.uk/council/the-co....

Please feel free to contact me if you require any further information or
assistance quoting the reference number above.

 

Yours sincerely on behalf of North East Lincolnshire Council

 

Feedback Officer

Resources Directorate

 

show quoted sections

PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear Mr Suggitt

 

Thank you for your information request, reference number 6596_1314 which
asked the council to confirm which are the correct figures relating to
the number of summons issued (asked for but overlooked). This is one of
the main factors that influenced the council's standard summons costs
imposed on Council Tax payers as per its calculation.

 

I wish to confirm that North East Lincolnshire Council can confirm that
the amount of accounts summonsed as shown on the calculation on the below
link is correct.

 

[1]http://www.nelincs.gov.uk/resident/counc...

 

If you are unhappy with the response you have received, you have the right
to request an internal review by the Council. If following this you are
still dissatisfied you may contact the Office of the Information
Commissioner. If you wish to request an internal review, please contact me
and I will make the necessary arrangements.

 

Yours sincerely on behalf of North East Lincolnshire Council

 

Feedback Officer

Resources Directorate

 

 

show quoted sections

Dear PPD - FOI,

Under the heading "How have the summons costs been calculated?"

http://www.nelincs.gov.uk/resident/counc...

"The cost of issuing a summons was £70 until 1 April 2014 when we reduced the cost to £60. For an explanation of how we calculate the summons cost, please view the Summons Cost spread sheet in the Document Downloads section of this page."

It was highlighted that around £74k is not being claimed by NELC from defaulters that the law allows it may do through court costs. The reduction from £70 to £60 suggests that that loss, based on the calculation would be increased by roughly £94k making the amount borne by the taxpayer to be around £168,000 each year.

Is this the case or has there been a review?

Yours sincerely,

R. Suggitt

PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear R Suggitt

 

I am pleased to acknowledge your request for information, which has been
allocated the reference number 7279_1415

Your request has been passed to the relevant department for processing and
you can expect your response within the 20 working day limit. If it will
take us longer than 20 working days to respond to you, we will inform you
of this and provide you with the expected date for receiving a response.

Further information about how we will deal with your Freedom of
Information requests is available on our website at:
[1]http://www.nelincs.gov.uk/council/the-co....

Please feel free to contact me if you require any further information or
assistance quoting the reference number above.

 

Yours sincerely on behalf of North East Lincolnshire Council

 

Feedback Officer

Resources Directorate

 

show quoted sections

PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear R Suggitt 

 

Thank you for your information request, reference number 7279_1415 which
asked:

 

It was highlighted that around £74k is not being claimed by NELC from
defaulters that the law allows it may do through court costs. The
reduction from £70 to £60 suggests that that loss, based on the
calculation would be increased by roughly £94k making the amount borne by
the taxpayer to be around £168,000 each year.

 

Is this the case or has there been a review?

 

North East Lincolnshire Council do not hold the information you have asked
for. It may be helpful if I explain that the Freedom of Information Act
(2000) gives individuals and organisations the right of access to all
types of recorded information held, at the time the request is received,
by public authorities such as North East Lincolnshire Council. Section 84
of the Act states that in order for a request for information to be
handled as a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, it must be for recorded
information. For example, a Freedom of Information request would be for a
copy of a policy, rather than an explanation as to why we have that policy
in place. On occasion, the North East Lincolnshire Council receives
requests that do not ask for recorded information, but ask more general
questions about, for example, a policy, opinion or a decision. In this
instance I am satisfied that your request falls outside of the scope of
the Freedom of Information Act as it is not a request for recorded
information but is a request for a comment.

 

If you believe that your request for information has not been handled in
accordance with the Freedom of Information Act, you have the right to
request an internal review by the Council. Please be clear about which
elements of the Council’s response or handling of the request you are
unhappy with, and would like the Council to address during the internal
review process.  If following this you are still dissatisfied you may
contact the Office of the Information Commissioner. If you wish to request
an internal review, please contact me and I will make the necessary
arrangements.

 

Yours sincerely on behalf of North East Lincolnshire Council

 

Feedback Officer

Resources Directorate

 

show quoted sections

Dear PPD - FOI,

re,

"North East Lincolnshire Council do not hold the information you have asked for. "

I don't believe NELC would reduce the standard sum of costs sought from £70 to £60 when that decision would lead to around £94,000 less income per annum without having some record of why it had done so.

In that case, please supply the information NELC holds in connection with that decision.

Yours sincerely,

R. Suggitt

PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear R Suggitt

 

I am pleased to acknowledge your request for further information, which
has been allocated the reference number 7279_1415

Your request has been passed to the relevant department for processing and
you can expect your response within the 20 working day limit. If it will
take us longer than 20 working days to respond to you, we will inform you
of this and provide you with the expected date for receiving a response.

Further information about how we will deal with your Freedom of
Information requests is available on our website at:
[1]http://www.nelincs.gov.uk/council/the-co....

Please feel free to contact me if you require any further information or
assistance quoting the reference number above.

 

Yours sincerely on behalf of North East Lincolnshire Council

 

Feedback Officer

Resources Directorate

 

show quoted sections

PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear R Suggitt 

 

Further to your information request 7279_1415, I wish to confirm that
North East Lincolnshire Council holds the following information in
relation to reduce the cost of a summons from £70 to £60

 

The calculation of the court costs is available on our website at:

 

[1]http://www.nelincs.gov.uk/resident/counc...

 

The decision was to approve the reduction in court costs was taken at the
Cabinet meeting held on February 17^th 2014, the papers for which can be
found on our website at:

 

[2]http://www.nelincs.gov.uk/meetings/commi...

 

If you believe that your request for information has not been handled in
accordance with the Freedom of Information Act, you have the right to
request an internal review by the Council. Please be clear about which
elements of the Council’s response or handling of the request you are
unhappy with, and would like the Council to address during the internal
review process.  If following this you are still dissatisfied you may
contact the Office of the Information Commissioner. If you wish to request
an internal review, please contact me and I will make the necessary
arrangements.

 

Yours sincerely on behalf of North East Lincolnshire Council

 

Feedback Officer

Resources Directorate

 

show quoted sections

Dear PPD - FOI,

Thank you for supplying the link to the calculation.

I've taken a quick look at it and noticed an inconsistent approach to how expenditure is dealt with in relation to the fees paid to HMCTS, assuming the budget code LL103 (13,600 summonses), relates to the number of Council Tax complaints made to the Magistrates' Court.

The 2012/13 calculation deducted from the "Debt Recovery" budget, an amount of court fees excluding those paid in respect of Council Tax applications.

Conversely,

The 2013/14 calculation deducted from the "Debt Recovery" budget, solely the amount of court fees paid in respect of Council Tax applications.

The issue arises also that where costs are waived in apparently 26% of cases, the 10,000 accounts to which costs are applied will pay £60 instead of £44 had all 13,600 been liable for the costs.

Yours sincerely,

R. Suggitt

Dear PPD - FOI,

The spreadsheet makes reference to a tab that appears to have been omitted....

"Enforcement Costs - staff and overheads (see debt recovery salaries tab)"

Will this be amended to include the tab?

The formula relating to the cell (£164,372) under "debt recovery" shows that after £40,800 has been deducted, 26% of the total debt recovery budget is not attributable to the calculation.

Will this be clarified?

Yours sincerely,

R. Suggitt

PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear R Suggitt

 

I am pleased to acknowledge your follow up request for information, which
has been allocated the reference number 7279_1415

Your request has been passed to the relevant department for processing and
you can expect your response within the 20 working day limit. If it will
take us longer than 20 working days to respond to you, we will inform you
of this and provide you with the expected date for receiving a response.

Further information about how we will deal with your Freedom of
Information requests is available on our website at:
[1]http://www.nelincs.gov.uk/council/the-co....

Please feel free to contact me if you require any further information or
assistance quoting the reference number above.

 

Yours sincerely on behalf of North East Lincolnshire Council

 

Feedback Officer

Resources Directorate

 

show quoted sections

PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear R Suggitt 

 

Further to your query concerning the Summons cost calculation (2013/14), I
am pleased to confirm the following

 

The calculation referred to in the request represents the best estimate of
the cost of activities undertaken within those particular areas relating
to the issuing of a summons, and is the Council’s evidential record of how
it set the summons cost for 2014/15.

 

You asked whether we would be adding the ‘debt recovery salaries’ tab. The
financial information included in the calculation is sufficient to
demonstrate how the estimated the cost of activities undertaken relating
to the issuing of a summons was calculated. We will therefore not be
adding this tab to the spread sheet.

 

If you believe that your request for information has not been handled in
accordance with the Freedom of Information Act, you have the right to
request an internal review by the Council. Please be clear about which
elements of the Council’s response or handling of the request you are
unhappy with, and would like the Council to address during the internal
review process.  If following this you are still dissatisfied you may
contact the Office of the Information Commissioner. If you wish to request
an internal review, please contact me and I will make the necessary
arrangements.

 

Yours sincerely on behalf of North East Lincolnshire Council

 

Feedback Officer

Resources Directorate

 

show quoted sections

Dear PPD - FOI,

Does nobody check the accuracy of anything at North East Lincolnshire Council?

It's like the council outsources this sort of thing to Elementary Schools for children to have a crack at and nobody bothers to check it.

Is NELC not ashamed?

Yours sincerely,

R. Suggitt

The Real Neil Gilliatt left an annotation ()

Surely your the one that needs to be ashamed for wasting people's time Mr Gilliatt

Dear PPD - FOI,

Re; "You asked whether we would be adding the ‘debt recovery salaries’ tab. The financial information included in the calculation is sufficient to demonstrate how the estimated the cost of activities undertaken relating to the issuing of a summons was calculated. We will therefore not be adding this tab to the spread sheet."

The information in the calculation IS sufficient to demonstrate how the costs relating to the issuing of a summons was calculated ONLY for people looking at it who have either no desire to properly understand it or are easily hoodwinked.

I don't, and suspect nobody knows what the £164,372 (debt recovery) specifically relates to and why it has been deducted from the total debt recovery budget. North East Lincolnshire Council evidently has a stand alone calculation;

re, "Enforcement Costs - staff and overheads (see debt recovery salaries tab)"

Despite NELC stating it will not be adding the tab to the spread sheet, I would like this calculation supplying.

In the meantime I would like NELC to clarify what relevance the figure (£164,372) has with regards debt recovery. I suspect this is an estimate of "Enforcement Costs - staff and overheads" which are not specifically related to council tax, but are however, connected with NNDR, Sundry debts, housing benefit overpayments etc. etc.

Yours sincerely,

R. Suggitt

PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear Sir or Madam

 

I am pleased to acknowledge your request for information, which has been
allocated the reference number 7930_1415.

Your request has been passed to the relevant department for processing and
you can expect your response within the 20 working day limit. If it will
take us longer than 20 working days to respond to you, we will inform you
of this and provide you with the expected date for receiving a response.

Further information about how we will deal with your Freedom of
Information requests is available on our website at:
[1]http://www.nelincs.gov.uk/council/the-co....

Please feel free to contact me if you require any further information or
assistance quoting the reference number above.

 

Yours sincerely on behalf of North East Lincolnshire Council

 

Feedback Officer

Resources Directorate

 

 

show quoted sections

PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear Mr Suggitt

 

I am pleased to acknowledge your Freedom of Information request in
relation to the administration of Council Tax by North East Lincolnshire
Council, which has been given the reference number 7930/1415.

 

North East Lincolnshire Council have received a number of Freedom of
Information requests relating to the administration of Council Tax.

 

Following a review of the requests we consider they have been made as part
of a wider campaign to gather information from the Council. Therefore in
accordance with the Freedom of Information and Data Protection
(Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004, the Council has made the
decision to aggregate the requests. This means that the estimated cost of
complying with any of the requests would be taken to be the total costs of
complying with all of them.

We determine that this request is part of that wider campaign.

 

We have estimated that in the last 60 consecutive working days, that the
time required for the activities needed to locate, retrieve and extract
the information asked for in the requests received would take over 500
hours (£12,500), exceeding the appropriate limit of £450 (18 hours).

Under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, a public
authority is not obliged to comply with a request where the estimated cost
of doing so would exceed the appropriate limit. Further information about
how we handle requests which exceed the appropriate limit can be found in
our Charging Policy for information requests, which is available on our
website at
[1]http://www.nelincs.gov.uk/council/the-co...

 

The Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and
Fees) Regulations 2004 can be viewed at
[2]http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2004/...

 

North East Lincolnshire Council, will therefore not be responding to this
request at this time, as to do so would exceed the appropriate limit under
section 12.

As the time to taken to respond to these queries has already exceeded the
appropriate limit of £450, it is not possible to provide you with any
advice and assistance that would  refine your requests and allow it to be
processed without exceeding the appropriate limit.

 

As a Council we are committed to publishing as much information as
possible to increase understanding of the services we provide. Details of
the Council’s administration of Council Tax can be found on our website at
[3]http://www.nelincs.gov.uk/resident/counc... this includes
statistical information about Council Tax billing and recovery.

 

If you are unhappy with the response you have received, you have the right
to request an internal review by the Council. If following this you are
still dissatisfied you may contact the Office of the Information
Commissioner. If you wish to request an internal review, please contact me
stating why a refusal notice under section 12 of the Freedom of
Information Act should not be applied, and I will make the necessary
arrangements.

 

Yours sincerely on behalf of North East Lincolnshire Council

 

 

Feedback Officer

North East Lincolnshire Council

 

 

 

Confidentiality Note:  I am not authorised to bind my authority
contractually, nor to make representations or other statements which may
bind the authority in any way via electronic means.

 

Please consider the environment - do you really need to print this email?

 

Not protectively marked

 

show quoted sections

Dear North East Lincolnshire Council,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of North East Lincolnshire Council's handling of my FOI request 'No costs are applied for obtaining a liability order'.

North East Lincolnshire Council has spent more time in respect of man hours putting together an explanation as to why it won't supply the information on the grounds of it taking excessive man hours, than it would if it had just provided the information.

re, "Enforcement Costs - staff and overheads (see debt recovery salaries tab)"

You obviously have the information so what is the problem?

Has NELC something to hide?

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/n...

Yours faithfully,

R. Suggitt

Knobby left an annotation ()

Why North East Lincolnshire Council is not grateful for the mistakes that these FOI requests are highlighting is beyond me.

If it offset the £12k it says it would cost in man hours against the much higher costs needed to remunerate a competent person within Revenues & Benefits (who knew the law), then they'd have a much more economical way of running the service. Not only that, they would be able to run the service properly.

PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear R Suggitt

Further to your request an Internal Review has taken place into North East Lincolnshire Council's handling of your information request 7930-1415

I have reviewed the response provided to you and the handling of your request in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act and find:

1. That your request was responded to within the statutory time of 20 working days;

2. That you were informed of the Council's decision to refuse your request under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act, and the Council's decision to aggregate your request as it is deemed to be part of a wider campaign, in accordance with the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004; and

3. That your response provided you with your rights of appeal.

I am therefore satisfied that the Council has acted in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act in the handling of your request.

If you remain dissatisfied with the Council’s handling of your request, or the decision of the internal review you can request an independent review by contacting the Information Commissioner's Office at Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

Yours sincerely on behalf of North East Lincolnshire Council

Paul Ellis
Team Manager - Information Governance and Data Protection

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Davo38 left an annotation ()

Hi mr suggit how would I contact you regarding Information on a similar situation to this topic ? Thanks

Rebecca Saunders (Account suspended) left an annotation ()

Might be something here you 're looking for.

http://legalbeagles.info/forums/showthre...

Davo38 left an annotation ()

thank you Rebecca I'm a little uneducated in costs... If your summoned to court cause the coucil have asked for commital to prison for non Paynent of coucil tax and an application fee of £245 incurred and the recipient never received the original Due to the council negligently posting to a previous address for over a year then reissued this summons to your current address the day before your due to attend for that sitting after it's been rescheduled by them and the application fee is now incorporated into one of the ct figures owing on that bill and the costs added are now £70 on the reissued bill without explanation of this action s this a legitimate action as an example of the situation at current or is this a blaintant action to defraud the coucil tax payer theft by dishonesty ect...... Your advice would be extremely helpful thanks :-)