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

foi, Fenland District Council

I acknowledge your request for information received, which is being
investigated.

 

The Act allows the Council 20 working days to comply with your request. 
During this time, the Council will assess the information to establish if
any exemptions apply.  If it is felt that any information may be exempt
from disclosure, this will be given careful consideration and the Public
Interest Test will be applied if appropriate.  If it is determined that
any material is exempt, you will be notified of which information is not
going to be released and the reasons why.

 

If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact the Freedom of
Information Officer at Fenland District Council, or email
[1][Fenland District Council request email].  It would help us to help you if you could quote
the Information Request No, quoted above, on any correspondence.

 

Yours sincerely

 

FOI Officer

Fenland District Council

01354 654321

[Fenland District Council request email]

 

Fenland District Council Legal Disclaimer

 

E-mails and any attachments from Fenland District Council (the Council) are confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately by replying to the e-mail, and then delete it without making copies or using it in any other way or placing any reliance on it.

It is not intended that this e-mail shall constitute either an offer or acceptance nor is it intended to form a contract between the Council and the addressee or any third party.

Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the sender and do not necessarily represent those of the Council unless otherwise specifically stated.

Although any attachments to the message will have been checked for viruses before transmission, you are urged to carry out your own virus check before opening attachments, since the Council accepts no responsibility for loss or damage caused by software viruses.

Senders and recipients of e-mail should be aware that, under the EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016, the Freedom of Information Act 2000, the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 and other related legislation, the contents of e-mails may have to be disclosed in response to a request.

To provide you with our services we will need to record personal information, such as your e-mail address. This information will be kept securely and only accessed by approved staff. We will not share your information with anyone else without first telling you. If you would like more details about how we protect personal information then please contact our Data Protection Officer.

References

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1. mailto:[Fenland District Council request email]

foi, Fenland District Council

1 Attachment

Dear Joanna

 

Thank you for your request for information received on 12/04/2019.

 

We are still in the process of collating the information requested and
therefore we will require an extension of time in order to collate our
full response to you. We will be in a position to provide you with a full
response by close of business on Friday 17 May 2019.

 

We apologise for any convenience this may cause.

 

Kind regards

 

Freedom of Information Officer

01354 654321

[1]www.fenland.gov.uk

 

[2]Medium logo 2008 cmyk

 

How did we do? Visit our website to [3]have your say

 

Fenland District Council Legal Disclaimer

 

E-mails and any attachments from Fenland District Council (the Council) are confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately by replying to the e-mail, and then delete it without making copies or using it in any other way or placing any reliance on it.

It is not intended that this e-mail shall constitute either an offer or acceptance nor is it intended to form a contract between the Council and the addressee or any third party.

Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the sender and do not necessarily represent those of the Council unless otherwise specifically stated.

Although any attachments to the message will have been checked for viruses before transmission, you are urged to carry out your own virus check before opening attachments, since the Council accepts no responsibility for loss or damage caused by software viruses.

Senders and recipients of e-mail should be aware that, under the EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016, the Freedom of Information Act 2000, the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 and other related legislation, the contents of e-mails may have to be disclosed in response to a request.

To provide you with our services we will need to record personal information, such as your e-mail address. This information will be kept securely and only accessed by approved staff. We will not share your information with anyone else without first telling you. If you would like more details about how we protect personal information then please contact our Data Protection Officer.

References

Visible links
1. http://www.fenland.gov.uk/
3. http://www.fenland.gov.uk/threecs

foi, Fenland District Council

1 Attachment

Good afternoon!

Further to my previous email, I can confirm that we will be in a position
to release a response to your request on Monday 20 May.

 

I apologise for the delay

 

Kind regards

 

Freedom of Information Officer

01354 654321

[1]www.fenland.gov.uk

 

[2]Medium logo 2008 cmyk

 

How did we do? Visit our website to [3]have your say

 

From: foi
Sent: 09 May 2019 15:25
To: '[FOI #567928 email]'
Subject: Freedom of Information Request 5874

 

Dear Joanna

 

Thank you for your request for information received on 12/04/2019.

 

We are still in the process of collating the information requested and
therefore we will require an extension of time in order to collate our
full response to you. We will be in a position to provide you with a full
response by close of business on Friday 17 May 2019.

 

We apologise for any convenience this may cause.

 

Kind regards

 

Freedom of Information Officer

01354 654321

[4]www.fenland.gov.uk

 

[5]Medium logo 2008 cmyk

 

How did we do? Visit our website to [6]have your say

 

Fenland District Council Legal Disclaimer

 

E-mails and any attachments from Fenland District Council (the Council) are confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately by replying to the e-mail, and then delete it without making copies or using it in any other way or placing any reliance on it.

It is not intended that this e-mail shall constitute either an offer or acceptance nor is it intended to form a contract between the Council and the addressee or any third party.

Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the sender and do not necessarily represent those of the Council unless otherwise specifically stated.

Although any attachments to the message will have been checked for viruses before transmission, you are urged to carry out your own virus check before opening attachments, since the Council accepts no responsibility for loss or damage caused by software viruses.

Senders and recipients of e-mail should be aware that, under the EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016, the Freedom of Information Act 2000, the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 and other related legislation, the contents of e-mails may have to be disclosed in response to a request.

To provide you with our services we will need to record personal information, such as your e-mail address. This information will be kept securely and only accessed by approved staff. We will not share your information with anyone else without first telling you. If you would like more details about how we protect personal information then please contact our Data Protection Officer.

References

Visible links
1. http://www.fenland.gov.uk/
3. http://www.fenland.gov.uk/threecs
4. http://www.fenland.gov.uk/
6. http://www.fenland.gov.uk/threecs

foi, Fenland District Council

1 Attachment

Dear Joanna      

 

Thank you for your request for information received on 12/04/2019, please
see our response below;

 

Please accept our apologies for the delay in our response.

 

In the year 2015/16, 2 councillors received reminders and summonses as
follows:

 

Councillor Tierney received a 1 summons in respect of a property for which
he had received 1 reminder.  The summons was for £1,336.00 (please note in
that respect that when a summons is issued it is for the full amount
remaining for that Council Tax year and is not limited simply to the
amount of unpaid council tax giving rise to the notice/summons).  The
liability was settled in full without the need for a hearing.

 

Councillor Connor received 2 summonses in respect of 2 properties for
which he had received 2 reminders.  The summonses was for £270.57 and
£163.21 respectively.  One was settled and the other resulted in a court
hearing in respect of which a liability order was made.  Following that
order all payments were settled.  The summonses related to rental
properties owned by Councillor Connor and were not in relation to his own
residential address.

 

In addition, 2  further councillors received reminders but no summons was
issued.  The first of the 2 received 2 reminders for £119.27 and £21.23. 
The other received reminders for £90.29 and £111.00.  Both Councillors
settled their liability and therefore no outstanding payments are
required.  The Council is withholding the identity of these individuals as
whilst the Council holds this information, it is not considered
appropriate to release that information on the basis that it amounts to
personal information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. 
Additionally, 1 of the members is no longer serving. (please see a further
explanation below). 

 

For the year 2016/17, 3 councillors received 1 reminder each for sums of
£108.36, £91.91, £84.22.  Each of them settled their liability without the
need for a summons to be issued or s.106 declaration to be made.  Whilst
the Council holds information relating to the identity of these
individuals it is not considered appropriate to release that information
on the basis that it amounts to personal information under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000. Therefore we are applying exemption Section 40 (2)
of the Freedom of Information 2000 as the data relates to personal data of
third parties (please see a further explanation below). Additionally, 1 of
the members is no longer serving.

 

For the year 2017/18, 5 councillors received 2 reminders each for the sums
of £163.90 & £27.90, £109 & £109, £427.54 & £216, £100.69 & £99.69 and
£161 and £161 (respectively).  Each of them settled their liability
without the need for a summons to be issued or a s.106 declaration to be
made.  Again, whilst the Council holds information relating to the
identity of these individuals, it is not considered appropriate to release
that information on the basis that it amounts to personal information
under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Therefore we are applying
exemption Section 40 (2) of the Freedom of Information 2000 as the data
relates to personal data of third parties (please see a further
explanation below).  Additionally, 1 of the members is no longer serving.

 

Section 40 (2)

In regards to the use of the exemption under s40 of the Freedom of
Information Act generally, whilst it is acknowledged that the information
requested relates to persons in public facing roles, our interpretation of
the guidance is that there would remain an expectation of privacy in
circumstances where a summons has not been issued and/or the information
has not otherwise entered the public domain either via s.106 disclosure
and/or some other means.  In this instance the individuals concerned
received reminders and fully settled their respective liabilities without
the need for more stringent action to be taken.  In that instance we do
not consider that the public interest in knowing the identities of these
individuals outweighs our duties under the GDPR and Data Protection Act. 
We have however provided a summary of the information you have requested
in the interests of being as transparent as possible in the
circumstances. 

 

If you require any further information regarding your request or are
unhappy with the response, you should contact the Member Services Officers
at Fenland District Council or e-mail [1][Fenland District Council request email] in the first
instance. 

 

If after this, you are still dissatisfied with this decision, you may
request the Information Commissioner to investigate.  The contact details
are:

 

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

WILMSLOW

Cheshire SK9 5AF

Tel: 01625 545700

[2]www.ico.org.uk

 

Yours sincerely

 

Freedom of Information Officer

01354 654321

[3]www.fenland.gov.uk

 

[4]Medium logo 2008 cmyk

 

How did we do? Visit our website to [5]have your say

 

Fenland District Council Legal Disclaimer

 

E-mails and any attachments from Fenland District Council (the Council) are confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately by replying to the e-mail, and then delete it without making copies or using it in any other way or placing any reliance on it.

It is not intended that this e-mail shall constitute either an offer or acceptance nor is it intended to form a contract between the Council and the addressee or any third party.

Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the sender and do not necessarily represent those of the Council unless otherwise specifically stated.

Although any attachments to the message will have been checked for viruses before transmission, you are urged to carry out your own virus check before opening attachments, since the Council accepts no responsibility for loss or damage caused by software viruses.

Senders and recipients of e-mail should be aware that, under the EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016, the Freedom of Information Act 2000, the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 and other related legislation, the contents of e-mails may have to be disclosed in response to a request.

To provide you with our services we will need to record personal information, such as your e-mail address. This information will be kept securely and only accessed by approved staff. We will not share your information with anyone else without first telling you. If you would like more details about how we protect personal information then please contact our Data Protection Officer.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[Fenland District Council request email]
2. http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk/
3. http://www.fenland.gov.uk/
5. http://www.fenland.gov.uk/threecs