Council Tax Service – Costs, Headcount & Collection Performance Benchmarking

The request was successful.

Dear Bristol City Council,

Please provide the following information for the Council Tax (CT) Service under the provisions of the FOIA.

1. Council Tax Staff (including valuation and visits) FTE as at 31/03/17
2. Customer Contact Centres staff FTE as at 31/03/17
3. Enforcement staff FTE as at 31/03/17
4. Total FTE as at 31/03/17
5. Total FTE as at 31/01/18

6. Gross Costs of CT service (excl. enforcement) for Financial Year 2016/17
7. Enforcement Cost (or Surplus -cr) for Financial Year 2016/17
8. Gross Costs of CT Service (incl. enforcement) for Financial Year 2016/17

9. Total Banded Dwellings as at 31/03/17
10. Number of Exempt Dwellings as at 31/03/17
11. Total Chargeable Dwellings as at 31/03/17

12. What was the % of CT collected 'in-year' for financial year 2016/17?
13. Previous Year arrears of CT as at 01/04/16
14. Previous Year arrears of CT as at 01/04/17

Yours faithfully,

J Wood

Freedom of Information, Bristol City Council

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No Reply @ Bristol, Bristol City Council

Dear J Wood 
This is a courtesy email to let you know your Public Information
Request has been received on : 05/02/2018. 
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"No Reply @ Bristol" <noreply@bristol.gov.uk>, Bristol City Council

You sent us a Freedom of Information request on 05/02/2018

Your request number is CRN00154409

We’ve looked at your request and you should receive a reply on or before 05/03/2018 11:20 This will be 20 working days since your original request.

The request

-----Original Message-----
From: J Wood [mailto:[FOI #462436 email]]
Sent: 03 February 2018 14:32
To: Freedom of Information
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Council Tax Service – Costs, Headcount & Collection Performance Benchmarking

Dear Bristol City Council,

Please provide the following information for the Council Tax (CT) Service under the provisions of the FOIA.

1. Council Tax Staff (including valuation and visits) FTE as at 31/03/17 2. Customer Contact Centres staff FTE as at 31/03/17 3. Enforcement staff FTE as at 31/03/17 4. Total FTE as at 31/03/17 5. Total FTE as at 31/01/18

6. Gross Costs of CT service (excl. enforcement) for Financial Year 2016/17 7. Enforcement Cost (or Surplus -cr) for Financial Year 2016/17 8. Gross Costs of CT Service (incl. enforcement) for Financial Year 2016/17

9. Total Banded Dwellings as at 31/03/17 10. Number of Exempt Dwellings as at 31/03/17 11. Total Chargeable Dwellings as at 31/03/17

12. What was the % of CT collected 'in-year' for financial year 2016/17?
13. Previous Year arrears of CT as at 01/04/16 14. Previous Year arrears of CT as at 01/04/17

Yours faithfully,

J Wood

Additional Information (if any)

If you don’t hear from us by this time please contact [Bristol City Council request email]
Contact details we have for you
J Wood
 [FOI #462436 email]

 

Thanks

Bristol City Council

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No Reply @ Bristol, Bristol City Council

I am replying in response to your request for information under the Freedom of Information Act. Below are your questions and the responses to each.

1. Council Tax Staff (including valuation and visits) FTE as at 31/03/17
NB: the Local Taxation Service runs as an integrated service including Council Tax, Non- domestic Rates, Valuation & Visits, Debt Management and in-house systems support.
Total FTE dealing with Council Tax = 57.8
• 30.5 FTE who have mixed/integrated Local Taxation roles
• 27.3 FTE dealing with only Council Tax
2. Customer Contact Centres staff FTE as at 31/03/17
NB: the Customer Contact Centre is not an integrated part of Local Taxation, but contains the following staff who deal with Local Taxation and Benefit enquiries
FTE as at 31/03/2017: 30.54 FTE
3. Enforcement staff FTE as at 31/03/17
Zero, see 7 below
4. Total FTE as at 31/03/17
Local Taxation 68.2 – 31/3/17
5. Total FTE as at 31/01/18
Local Taxation 69.8 - 31/1/18
6. Gross Costs of CT service (excl. enforcement) for Financial Year 2016/17
£3,918,330 for the entire Local Taxation Service. Figures are not available for just the Council Tax service as Local Taxation runs as an integrated service.
7. Enforcement Cost (or Surplus -cr) for Financial Year 2016/17
Zero, as we have a no fee service level agreement with the enforcement agents we use
8. Gross Costs of CT Service (incl. enforcement) for Financial Year 2016/17
See 6 and 7 above
9. Total Banded Dwellings as at 31/03/17
198,569
10. Number of Exempt Dwellings as at 31/03/17
9,058
11. Total Chargeable Dwellings as at 31/03/17
189,511
12. What was the % of CT collected 'in-year' for financial year 2016/17?
96.78%
13. Previous Year arrears of CT as at 01/04/16
NB: as we use multiyear accounting, technically we have all arrears
£12,233,322.49 based on the total arrears as at those times
14. Previous Year arrears of CT as at 01/04/17
NB: as we use multiyear accounting, technically we have all arrears
£12,832,465.88 based on the total arrears as at those times

This response should answer your request in full, however if you are not satisfied with this response or wish to lodge an appeal against any exemptions that may have been applied, you can do so by writing to the Data Protection Officer at Bristol City Council Legal Services, The Council House, College Green, Bristol, BS99 7PH or [Bristol City Council request email]. Details of the complaints procedure can be found at www.bristol.gov.uk/complaints.

If, after you have exhausted the council’s complaints procedure, you are still not satisfied with the response you have received you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner, details of your right to complain can be found at www.ico.gov.uk/complaints.

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Mrs H Fitzgerald
Senior Local Taxation Officer
Local Taxation, Finance
Bristol City Council

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