Court summons over unpaid council tax

The request was partially successful.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I would like to request the following information in accordance with FOI laws:

1) How many court summons and liability orders have been issued by your council for unpaid council tax in the year
a) 2016
b) 2017
c) 2018
d) 2019 (so far)?
If your council is covering several councils/districts, please answer for all of them.

2) How many of these were successful in
a) 2016
b) 2017
c) 2018
d) 2019?

3) How many summons and liability orders were issued for late council tax payments of
a) under £50
aa) in 2016
bb) in 2017
cc) in 2018
dd) in 2019

b) under £30
aa) in 2016
bb) in 2017
cc) in 2018
dd) in 2019?

c) under £10
aa) in 2016
bb) in 2017
cc) in 2018
dd) in 2019?

4) What was the overall cost in £ to your council for all unsuccessful summons and liability orders made in
a) 2016
b) 2017
c) 2018
d) 2019 (so far)?
Note, do not include working hours/resources etc in these costs, by costs I refer solely to fees directly arising from the use of the public courts system.
If your council is covering several councils/districts, please answer for all of them.

I look forward to hearing your response!

Yours faithfully,

Jedidajah Otte

No Reply @ Bristol, Bristol City Council

Dear Jedidajah Otte 
This is a courtesy email to let you know your Public Information
Request has been received on : 18/07/2019. 
Your unique reference number is "CRN00237059 ". Please keep this
number safe, as you may be required to provide it in the future. 
If you need to add further information concerning your case or
require an update about your response date, please email
[email address
Regards,
Customer Relations Team

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"No Reply @ Bristol" <noreply@bristol.gov.uk>, Bristol City Council

You sent us a Freedom of Information request on 18/07/2019

Your request number is CRN00237059

We’ve looked at your request and you should receive a reply on or before 15/08/2019 This will be 20 working days since your original request.

The request

From: Laila Devro [mailto:[FOI #590465 email]]
Sent: 18 July 2019 15:26
To: Freedom of Information
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Court summons over unpaid council tax

Dear Sir/Madam,

I would like to request the following information in accordance with FOI laws:

1) How many court summons and liability orders have been issued by your council for unpaid council tax in the year
a) 2016
b) 2017
c) 2018
d) 2019 (so far)?
If your council is covering several councils/districts, please answer for all of them.

2) How many of these were successful in
a) 2016
b) 2017
c) 2018
d) 2019?

3) How many summons and liability orders were issued for late council tax payments of
a) under £50
aa) in 2016
bb) in 2017
cc) in 2018
dd) in 2019

b) under £30
aa) in 2016
bb) in 2017
cc) in 2018
dd) in 2019?

c) under £10
aa) in 2016
bb) in 2017
cc) in 2018
dd) in 2019?

4) What was the overall cost in £ to your council for all unsuccessful summons and liability orders made in
a) 2016
b) 2017
c) 2018
d) 2019 (so far)?
Note, do not include working hours/resources etc in these costs, by costs I refer solely to fees directly arising from the use of the public courts system.
If your council is covering several councils/districts, please answer for all of them.

I look forward to hearing your response!

Yours faithfully,

Jedidajah Otte

Additional Information (if any)

If you don’t hear from us by this time please contact us quoting your request number CRN00237059 at  [1][email address
Contact details we have for you
Jedidajah Otte
[FOI #590465 email]

 

Thank you

Bristol City Council

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References

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1. mailto:[email address]

"Customer Relations Team" <complaints.feedback@bristol.gov.uk>, Bristol City Council

You sent us a Freedom of Information request on 18/07/2019

Your request number is CRN00237059

Our reply to your request is:  

1) How many court summons and liability orders have been issued by
your council for unpaid council tax in the year?

The summons issues below are the numbers that were issued between the
01/04 and the 31/03 of any financial year and do not necessarily
relate to the financial year in question. For example those summons
issues early in the financial year will relate to reminder and
arrears outstanding for the previous financial year.  However these
are actual summons issues from 01/04 and 31/03 inclusive.

2016) 20,352

2017) 18,959

2018) 19,334

2019)   6,443 (Up to and including 24/07/2019)

 

2) How many of these were successful in

a) 2016

b) 2017

c) 2018

d) 2019?

We do not keep these individual records as arrears are paid on a
daily basis and relate to numerous different years at any one time.
In addition there may be debts that are written off due to absconds
only to be written back on at a later date when the citizen can be
found and recovery action recommences.

 

3) How many summons and liability orders were issued for late council
tax payments of

a) under £50

aa) in 2016

bb) in 2017

cc) in 2018

dd) in 2019

As stated in the answer to Question 1.  The summons issues below are
the numbers that were issued between the 01/04 and the 31/03 of any
financial year and do not necessarily relate to the financial year in
question. For example those summons issues early in the financial
year will relate to reminder and arrears outstanding for the previous
financial year.  However these are actual summons issues of under £50
from 01/04 and 31/03 inclusive.

2016) 729

2017) 577

2018) 632

2019) 183 (Up to and including 24/07/2019)

 

b) under £30

aa)  in 2016

bb) in 2017

cc) in 2018

dd) in 2019?

We do not issue summonses or liability orders for under £30

 

c) under £10

aa)  in 2016

bb) in 2017

cc) in 2018

dd) in 2019?

We do not issue summonses or liability orders for under £10

 

 

 

 

4) What was the overall cost in £ to your council for all
unsuccessful summons and liability orders made in

a) 2016

b) 2017

c) 2018

d) 2019 (so far)?

Note, do not include working hours/resources etc in these costs, by
costs I refer solely to fees directly arising from the use of the
public courts system.

If your council is covering several councils/districts, please answer
for all of them.

As stated in the answer to Question 2 we do not keep individual
records as to the number or amount of successful or unsuccessful
summonses.  Therefore I am unable to give an accurate answer to your
question.  However, for your information Legislation was laid to
reduce the level of costs charged by the Magistrates Court from £3.00
to £0.50 from 25 July 2018.  Up until 24 July 2018 the court costs
incurred by the Council  each summons/liability order was £3.00 and
following the reduction the court costs per summons/liability order
were 50p from 25 July 2018 to the present date.  This figure is
purely the court costs and do not take into consideration additional
charges added by the Council made for the administration of these
summons/liability orders.

 

With regards the information provided regarding summonses/liability
orders I have obtained figures from the Court and debt management
team. Please note that data has not been recorded for each individual
liability order hearing and I am only able to provide you with data
where available. The data I am able to provide is for a top level
count of the numbers issued in a financial year.  To provide a count
of liability issues granted for summons less than £50 would require
extracting PDFs from our document managing system where available and
will in our Control team s opinion take the request over the 18 hour
time limit. I must reiterate again however that we do not as a matter
of course issue a summons or liability order for under £50 and if we
find that we have, all recovery action is withdrawn.

 

This response should answer your request in full.

If you re not satisfied with our response, or if you want to appeal
against any exemptions:

Email: [1][Bristol City Council request email]
Write to: Customer Relations (100TS), PO Box 3176, Bristol, BS3 9FS

If you re still not satisfied with our response:

You can complain to the Information Commissioner. 
Find out how to do this on the Information Commissioner Office
website
 (link to [2]http://ico.org.uk/concerns)

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Kind regards

Bristol City Council

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References

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2. http://ico.org.uk/concerns
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