Freedom of Information Act (FOI) 2000 / Environmental Information
Regulations (EIR) 2004 / Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018

Thank you for your information request which is being dealt with under the
terms of the relevant legislation.

FOI and EIR requests will be answered within twenty working days. EIR
requests may require an extension of time to 40 working days where the
complexity and volume of the information requested means that it is
impracticable either to comply with the request within the earlier period
or to make a decision to refuse to do so.

GDPR and Data Protection Act - Subject Access Requests will be answered
within 1 month, unless the request is a complex one requiring the Council
to extend the deadline for up to 3 months. Other requests under the DPA
will be answered within 10 working days.

If you have any queries about this request please contact us via
[Horsham District Council request email] quoting the reference number in the subject line of
this email.

Yours sincerely,

Information Governance Team

Dear Natalie Bloomer

 

Freedom of Information Act 2000 Response

 

Further to our acknowledgement we can now respond to your request for
information dated 12/10/2023 asking about debt enforcement passed to
agents.

 

We have dealt with your request in accordance with ‘your right to know’
under section 1(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), which
entitles you to be provided with a copy of any information ‘held’ by a
public authority, unless an appropriate exemption applies.

 

In your email of 12/10/2023 you asked the following questions:

 

1. In relation to your collection of council tax for the 2022/2023 council
tax period please provide the total number of referrals/debts passed to
enforcement agents:

945

2. Please confirm the name of the enforcement company used by the council
for the recovery of council tax debt:

Marston Holdings Ltd

Bristow & Sutor (from April 2023)

Jacobs (historical cases only)

JTR Collections (historical cases only)

3. Please confirm if accounts which are part of the council tax
reduction/support scheme are passed to enforcement companies and if so how
many such cases were passed on for the 2022/23 council tax period:

 

173

4. Please confirm if accounts of people on health/disability related
benefits such as Disability Living Allowance, Employment Support Allowance
and Personal Independence Payment are passed to enforcement companies and
if so how many such cases were passed on for the 2022/23 council tax
period.

 

0

5. Please confirm if an assessment of vulnerability is done prior to a
debt being passed to an enforcement company and if so provide a brief
description of what the assessment involves. Please also confirm how many
cases of people assessed as being vulnerable or potentially vulnerable
were passed on to an enforcement company for the 2022/23 council tax
period.

 

We do not carry out an assessment of vulnerability before transfer,
however, if we are already aware of a vulnerability we do not transfer the
case to the Enforcement Agent

6. Please confirm what protocols are in place between the local authority
and enforcement companies regarding the approach that should be taken when
someone is assessed as being vulnerable as per the assessment referred to
in Q5. Please also confirm the kinds of cases which should be raised with,
or referred back to, local authorities for further consideration when
encountered.

 

If ourselves or the Enforcement Agents team become aware of a
vulnerability post transfer we will usually refer this to the Enforcement
Agent’s welfare team or request the case is returned.

7. Please confirm A) how many requests the council received to bring a
council tax debt back from an enforcement agent due to vulnerability
reasons during the 2022/23 period and B) How many times the council agreed
to bring an account back due to vulnerability reasons during the 2022/23
period.

 

This information is not held in such a way for us to be able to identify
and extract it without incurring excessive costs. We are therefore
withholding the requested information since we consider that the exemption
under Section 12 of the FOIA applies. Section 12 allows a public authority
to decline to answer FOI requests when we estimate it would cost us more
than £450 to identify, locate, extract, and then provide the information
that has been asked for.

To obtain the requested information, we would have to extract the data
manually; there is no report that can be run. There are approximately 720
accounts that need looking at and we would have to allow for 10 minutes
per account . This would bring us to approximately 120 hours of work which
equals approximately 3.24 weeks of full-time work for one member of staff.

Under Section 16 of the FOIA we are required to provide you with advice
and assistance on how to make your request manageable. We may be able to
reconsider your request if you are able to narrow it down to ask about a
specific Completion Notice or for reports over a shorter, more specific
time period.

 

 

If you wish to re-use the information supplied for any purpose other than
personal or non-commercial use you will need to make a written application
to the relevant department of the Council or author of the material
concerned.

 

Any information which you receive which is not subject to Horsham District
Council copyright continues to be protected by the copyright of the
person, or organisation, from which the information originated. You must
ensure that you gain their permission before reproducing any third party
(non HDC) information.

 

If you are dissatisfied with this response and wish to request a review of
our decision or make a complaint about how your request has been handled
you should write to The Reviewing Officer, Legal & Democratic Services,
Parkside, Chart Way, Horsham, West Sussex RH12 1RL or by email to
[1][Horsham District Council request email]

 

Your request for internal review should be submitted to us within 40
working days of receipt by you of this response.  Any such request
received after this time will be considered at the discretion of the Legal
Services team.

 

If having exhausted the review process you are not content that your
request or review has been dealt with correctly, you have the right to
appeal to the Information Commissioner at Wycliffe House, Water Lane,
Wilmslow, SK9 5AF.  Further details of this process are available on the
ICO website at [2]www.ICO.org.uk

 

There is no charge for making an appeal.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Beccy Salmon

 

Beccy Salmon

Operations Manager (Horsham Revenues & Benefits) 

Milton Keynes City Council & Horsham District Council

 

To speak with me: use Microsoft Teams or 07765341130

 

Milton Keynes City Council | Civic | 1 Saxon Gate East | Milton Keynes |
MK9 3EJ

[3]www.milton-keynes.gov.uk

 

 

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References

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1. mailto:[Horsham District Council request email]
2. http://www.ico.org.uk/
3. http://www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/