Dear Home Office,

I note your recent quarterly totals for penalties imposed for illegal working in various UK regions.

I also note that the document(s) state that "the recoverable value will be reduced due to adjustments made following objections and/or appeals."

Can you please outline for a period of at least one recent quarter for which the fullest information is held what the gross totals were, balanced against the end recoverable totals, i.e. both following any objections and appeals.

If it helps to separate out the fine(s) after the various objections had been exhausted versus the actual amount recovered (i.e. perhaps the business closed) then please do so.

I recognise that various factors might make this information partial and not exact.

Yours faithfully,

Stephen Green

Dear IE PQs, FOIs and Correspondence,

Apologies, I believed I had sent my reply, for some reason it doesn't appear here.

My reply therefore is as follows:

I'd like to see:

1) The totals for at least one quarter:
all fines issues in this quarter ie
In this period 100 firms were initially fined £10, the totals is £1,000

This is the headline figures that you already provide, anyway.

2) As near to the total fines determined after the majority of appeals have been concluded
i.e.
In this period, following appeals 80 firms were fined £10, the totals are £800.00

3) The recoverable amounts

In this period 50 firms paid, twenty firms declared bankruptcy and the rest is presently outstanding.

Total recoverable to date for the period is therefore: £500.00

I'm a little perplexed at your statement that it may "entail reviewing and cross-referencing several hundred case outcomes to distinguish which employers had paid or are paying their civil penalties, from those who are not paying or have not paid."

As you know it's a simple accounting procedure followed by all businesses and entities of any size to allow it to know which cases have been paid and which are outstanding for a particular quarter. If the HO does not follow these procedures then that would be alarming indeed.

Please let me know whether you require any further clarification and again accept my apologies that the original response did not get sent or disappeared in the ether.

Yours sincerely,

Stephen Green