Number of Business Rates Summonses issued

Cherie Jerez made this Freedom of Information request to North East Lincolnshire Council This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.

The request was refused by North East Lincolnshire Council.

Dear North East Lincolnshire Council,

Q1. In circumstances subsequent to a complaint being made to the Magistrates’ Court for a summons issued against a NNDR charge payer;

Please provide the reference in law giving North East Lincolnshire Council powers to impose an amount of summons costs, and take payment;

a) before a Liability Order has been granted

b) where no Liability Order has been granted

Q2. In accordance with Regulation 8(2) of Statutory Instrument 1989/1058, where an NNDR Ratepayer has become liable for payment of the remaining outstanding balance;

From 2005 to date, please supply the number of NNDR Ratepayers who have paid a summons where the case was not heard and consequently no liability order was granted in respect of that account?

Yours faithfully,

Cherie Jerez

PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear Sir or Madam

I am pleased to acknowledge your request for information, which has been
allocated the reference number 5629/1314

Your request has been passed to the relevant department for processing and
you can expect your response within the 20 working day limit. If it will
take us longer than 20 working days to respond to you, we will inform you
of this and provide you with the expected date for receiving a response.

Further information about how we will deal with your Freedom of
Information requests is available on our website at:

[1]http://www.nelincs.gov.uk/council/the-co....

Please feel free to contact me if you require any further information or
assistance quoting the reference number above.

Yours sincerely

Feedback Officer

North East Lincolnshire Council

 

show quoted sections

Neil Gilliatt (Account suspended) left an annotation ()

Unlike Council Tax, there is no provision in the law governing Business Rates that allows a defaulter to halt proceedings, if payment is made of the outstanding liability, plus incurred summons costs, before the case is heard.

The law states that in the case of Business Rates applications, an order for costs must be made by the court. However, North East Lincolnshire council instructs defaulters that on receiving a summons, if they ‘pay the full amount owing including all costs before the date of the hearing no further action will be required’.

It appears in those circumstances, the council does not apply to the court for an order of costs; in the year 2011-12, statistics show out of 932 business ratepayers summonsed, 33% of those incurred £70 costs where no liability order had been granted.

I can't see NELC admitting that over £21,000 in that year was imposed on business ratepayers for court costs that were not in accordance with the law.

Here's the figures since 2000:

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/1...

PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear Ms Jerez 

 

Thank you for your information request 5629_1314, I wish to confirm that
North East Lincolnshire Council holds the following information.

 

Q1. In circumstances subsequent to a complaint being made to the
Magistrates’ Court for a summons issued against a NNDR charge payer;

 

Please provide the reference in law giving North East Lincolnshire Council
powers to impose an amount of summons costs, and take payment; 

 

a) before a Liability Order has been granted

 

b) where no Liability Order has been granted

 

As stated in response to your earlier request 5135-1314 I am pleased to
confirm that the relevant legislation is The Non-Domestic Rating
(Collection and Enforcement) (Miscellaneous Provisions) Regulations 1990
PART III Regulation 7

 

Link to request 5135-1314
[1]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/n...

 

Link to legislation
[2]http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1990/...

 

If you require further details above the Regulations you may wish to
contact the Department of Community and Local Government
[3]https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...

 

Q2. In accordance with Regulation 8(2) of Statutory Instrument 1989/1058,
where an NNDR Ratepayer has become liable for payment of the remaining
outstanding balance;

 

From 2005 to date, please supply the number of NNDR Ratepayers who have
paid a summons where the case was not heard and consequently no liability
order was granted in respect of that account?

 

I can confirm that North East Lincolnshire Business Rate records will
include the information you have requested.

 

The analysis of Business Rate accounts and their settlement which you have
asked for is not required to meet either our statutory or business
requirements and is therefore not produced. In order to produce the
required analysis of the Business Rate accounts where a summons was raised
and their settlement, we would need to review each individual account
meeting the criteria of your question. For each account where the balance
was reduced we would need to determine the reason for the reduction which
could be:

 

·         Payment in Full;

·         Account closed due to Liquidation;

·         Company Struck off

·         Account Closed due to CVA

·         Exemptions applied;

·         Account closed due to being taken out of the VOA list; or

·         Ceased Trading.

 

Because of the number of potential different scenarios for the reduction
in the balance, it is not possible for the information requested to be
extracted directly from our electronic processing system, and a manual
review of each individual account would be required. If we did run an
electronic search it would identify all accounts settled for any of the
reasons stated above. We estimate that to review each account in order to
ascertain if the account had been settled in full as a consequence of the
scenario you specify would take 5 minutes per account.

 

Since 2005/06 over 6,000 summons have been issued for Business Rate
accounts, to review these would take over 500 hours (6,000 accounts x 5
minutes) at a cost of over £12,500, exceeding the appropriate limit of
£450 (18 hours).

 

We have considered your question and whether it could be refined in order
to allow it to be responded to without exceeding the appropriate limit. If
we refined your request to a single year i.e. 2012/13 in which 814 summons
were issued, the cost would still be over £1,600 hours (814 accounts x 5
minutes) exceeding the appropriate limit.

 

Under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, a public
authority is not obliged to comply with a request where the estimated cost
of doing so would exceed the appropriate amount. The Council’s Charging
Policy for information requests, which clearly sets out our
responsibilities and how the charging policy is applied, is available on
our website at
[4]http://www.nelincs.gov.uk/council/the-co...
North East Lincolnshire Council will therefore not be responding to your
request by virtue of section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act, as to
respond to either of questions would exceed the appropriate limit of £450.

 

As part of the Council’s commitment to transparency and to assist
understanding of the Business Rate process we publish annual details of
the number of Business Rate accounts, the number of bills, reminders and
summonses issued and the number of liability orders granted. This is
available on our website at
[5]http://www.nelincs.gov.uk/business/busin...

 

From this published information you can identify the number of summonses
issued and the subsequent number of liability orders granted. This will
however identity all cases where a liability order was not granted
following a summons, not just the accounts where the summons was paid. I
trust that this refined response answers your enquiry.

 

Please feel free to contact me if you wish to discuss your request or the
information provided in response to it.

 

If you are unhappy with the response you have received, you have the right
to request an internal review by the Council. If following this you are
still dissatisfied you may contact the Office of the Information
Commissioner. If you wish to request an internal review, please contact me
and I will make the necessary arrangements.

 

Yours sincerely on behalf of North East Lincolnshire Council

 

Paul Ellis

Team Manager - Information Governance, Complaints and Consultation,
Informatics and Research, Resources Directorate| North East Lincolnshire
Council

 

show quoted sections

Dear PPD - FOI,

Your link to the Non-Domestic Rating (Collection and Enforcement) (Miscellaneous Provisions) Regulations 1990 PART III Regulation 7, does not provide the reference in law giving North East Lincolnshire Council (or any local authority) powers to impose an amount of summons costs, and take payment before a Liability Order has been granted neither does it give it powers to impose an amount of summons costs where no Liability Order has been granted.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1990/...

"Local non-domestic rating: enforcement

7.—(1) Part III of the principal Regulations (enforcement) is amended in accordance with this regulation.

(2) In paragraph (6) of regulation 12, for the words “The order shall” there are substituted the words “An order made pursuant to paragraph (5) shall”; and after that paragraph there is inserted —

“(7) Where the sum payable is paid after a liability order has been applied for under paragraph (2) but before it is made, the court shall nonetheless (if so requested by the charging authority) make the order in respect of a sum of an amount equal to the costs reasonably incurred by the [authority] in making the application.”

Clearly the above states that a Liability Order must be obtained before the council can enforce payment for summons costs.

Unless another law makes provision for this, an order must first be obtained from the Magistrates' court on the day of the hearing.

Please note, the law differs to Council Tax in this regard.

Yours sincerely,

Cherie Jerez

Dear PPD - FOI,

I have been able to determine the number outlined in the second part of my request in relation to "costs raised" from the following spreadsheet (assuming the data is accurate):

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/1...

Would NELC verify my calculations:

2005/06 – 357

2006/07 – 502

2007/08 – 396

2008/09 – 566

2009/10 – 539

2010/11 – 310

2011/12 – 304

2012/13 (to 2nd Oct 2012) – 211

Total = 3,185 (value £160,826)

Yours sincerely,

Cherie Jerez

PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear Ms Jerez

 

We thank you for your comments regarding FOI 5629/1314

 

North East Lincolnshire Council can only provide the information it holds,
verifying calculations does not fall under the scope of the Freedom of
Information Act.

 

If you are unhappy with the response you have received, you have the right
to request an internal review by the Council. If following this you are
still dissatisfied you may contact the Office of the Information
Commissioner. If you wish to request an internal review, please contact me
and I will make the necessary arrangements.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Feedback Officer

North East Lincolnshire Council

 

Dear PPD - FOI,

 

I have been able to determine the number outlined in the second part of my
request in relation to "costs raised" from the following spreadsheet
(assuming the data is accurate):

 

[1]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/1...

 

Would NELC verify my calculations:

 

2005/06 – 357

 

2006/07 – 502

 

2007/08 – 396

 

2008/09 – 566

 

2009/10 – 539

 

2010/11 – 310

 

2011/12 – 304

 

2012/13 (to 2nd Oct 2012) – 211

 

Total = 3,185 (value £160,826)

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Cherie Jerez

 

show quoted sections

PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear Ms Jerez

 

We thank you for your observations regarding FOI 5629/1314

 

North East Lincolnshire Council can only provide the information it holds.

 

If you are unhappy with the response you have received, you have the right
to request an internal review by the Council. If following this you are
still dissatisfied you may contact the Office of the Information
Commissioner. If you wish to request an internal review, please contact me
and I will make the necessary arrangements.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Feedback Officer

North East Lincolnshire Council

 

 

 

show quoted sections

Neil Gilliatt (Account suspended) left an annotation ()

You've effectively all the information you requested without the need for NELC to confirming anything.

Council officers will swear black is white to cover their own a***s. You won't get them to admit anything that reveals their incompetence or criminal actions. Don't waste your time trying.

If you doubt this, look how long this charade went on for:

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/w...

Dear North East Lincolnshire Council,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of North East Lincolnshire Council's handling of my FOI request 'Number of Business Rates Summonses issued'.

The following was supplied to my request for information (Q.1).

"...I am pleased to confirm that the relevant legislation is The Non-Domestic Rating (Collection and Enforcement) (Miscellaneous Provisions) Regulations 1990 PART III Regulation 7"

I believe the most appropriate response would have been that the council did not hold the information. S.I. 1990/145 does not provide the reference in law requested.

The following statement is in relation to the second part of my request:

"North East Lincolnshire Council can only provide the information it holds, verifying calculations does not fall under the scope of the Freedom of Information Act."

It appears North East Lincolnshire Council does hold information which could easily have been disclose within the costs limits.

Will it now do so?

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/n...

Yours faithfully,

Cherie Jerez

PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear Ms Jerez

I am pleased to acknowledge your request for an internal review of the
response to request reference number 5629/1314

Your request has been passed to the relevant department for processing and
you can expect your response within the 20 working day limit. If it will
take us longer than 20 working days to respond to you, we will inform you
of this and provide you with the expected date for receiving a response.

Further information about how we will deal with your Freedom of
Information requests is available on our website at:

[1]http://www.nelincs.gov.uk/council/the-co....

Please feel free to contact me if you require any further information or
assistance quoting the reference number above.

Yours sincerely

Feedback Officer

North East Lincolnshire Council

 

 

show quoted sections

PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear Ms Jerez

Further to your request an Internal Review has taken place into North East
Lincolnshire Council's handling of your information request reference
5629_1314, concerning business rates summons issued.

I have reviewed the response provided to you and the handling of your
request in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act and find:

 1. That your request was responded to within the statutory time of 20
working days;
 2. That you were informed whether or not the information you asked for
was held by North East Lincolnshire Council;
 3. That you were provided with the reasons why any information you had
asked for could not be supplied to you under the Freedom of
Information Act; and
 4. That your response provided you with your rights of appeal. 

 

As explained in the original reply to your Freedom of Information Request
dated the 3^rd September 2013 the information you request is not required
to meet either our statutory or business requirements and is therefore not
produced. We have reviewed the previous response and can confirm that the
information provided was correct, that to extract the information a manual
review of each individual account would be needed.

 

To electronically extract the information you request, the system would
identify all accounts reduced due to the reasons below.

 

·         Payment in Full;

·         Account closed due to Liquidation;

·         Company Struck off

·         Account Closed due to CVA

·         Exemptions applied;

·         Account closed due to being taken out of the VOA list; or

·         Ceased Trading.

 

I conclude following further investigation that the original response sent
to you on the 3^rd September 2013 is correct. I am therefore satisfied
that the Council has acted in accordance with the Freedom of Information
Act in the handling of your request.

I trust that this Internal Review answers your queries in relation to your
request, and clarifies that your request has been handled in accordance
with the Freedom of Information Act. 

If you remain dissatisfied with the Council’s handling of your request, or
the decision of the internal review you can request an independent review
by contacting the Information Commissioner's Office at Wycliffe House,
Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

Yours sincerely on behalf of North East Lincolnshire Council

Ian Hollingsworth

Informatics and Research Team

 

show quoted sections

Dear PPD - FOI,

Thank you for your helpful response.

However, I would like you to clarify your response in regards the following:

"To electronically extract the information you request, the system would identify all accounts reduced due to the reasons below.

· Payment in Full;

· Account closed due to Liquidation;

· Company Struck off

· Account Closed due to CVA

· Exemptions applied;

· Account closed due to being taken out of the VOA list; or

· Ceased Trading."

I don't understand why this is being made so complicated.

The council must have an easily accessible record of the liability orders it has obtained as it will for income from costs.

If NELC have acted within the law the response should be "zero".

Would it makes things simpler if the paragraph was re-worded slightly as follows?

From 2005 to date, please supply the number of NNDR Ratepayers who have [incurred summons costs] where the case was not heard and consequently no liability order was granted in respect of that account?

Yours sincerely,

Cherie Jerez

George Cant left an annotation ()

Dear requester

They are not being honest in there responce here. I had a similare one a few years ago.

Its there estimation of cost to disclose the information that they are liying about. It would not take a manual inspection of the accounts to disclose this, it could be done easy with a computer search.

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/l...

reading the above you will understand they they will put every possible obstical in the way when the data your asking for exposses there maladministration

PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear Ms Jerez

Thank you for your further correspondence in relation to your request 5629-1314.

To obtain the information you have requested, even based on your refined question would as previously stated exceed the appropriate limit as it would require a manual review of each individual account.

If you remain dissatisfied with the Council’s handling of your request, or the decision of the internal review you can request an independent review by contacting the Information Commissioner's Office at Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

Yours sincerely on behalf of North East Lincolnshire Council

Paul Ellis
Team Manager - Information Governance, Complaints and Consultation

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Dear PPD - FOI,

In reference to my 3 September 2013 correspondence where I determined the following figures in relation to "costs raised" from this spreadsheet:

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/1...

2005/06 – 357

2006/07 – 502

2007/08 – 396

2008/09 – 566

2009/10 – 539

2010/11 – 310

2011/12 – 304

2012/13 (to 2nd Oct 2012) – 211

Total = 3,185

Are you saying the figures disclosed were incorrect in response to this FoI request?

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/c...

If so it would go some way in supporting your claim that to provide the data I'm requesting would exceed the appropriate limit. If correct however, you have been able to supply the data within the cost limits and therefore, I would say NELC is lying.

Yours sincerely,

Cherie Jerez

PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear Ms Jerez

Thank you for your further correspondence in relation to your request 5629-1314.

The Freedom of Information Act provides a right of access to the information the Council holds, and we have responded to your requests for information. However, verifying your calculations based on any information provided by the Council does not fall under the scope of the Freedom of Information Act, and we will not therefore be responding to this request further.

If you remain dissatisfied with the Council’s handling of your request you can ask for an independent review by contacting the Information Commissioner's Office at Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

Yours sincerely on behalf of North East Lincolnshire Council

Paul Ellis
Team Manager - Information Governance, Complaints and Consultation

show quoted sections

Dear PPD - FOI,

Who is pulling your strings?

I am not asking for you to verifying my calculations, I asked if the figures disclosed were incorrect in response to this FoI request:

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/c...

That's a simple enough question isn't it?

Yours sincerely,

Cherie Jerez

Neil Gilliatt (Account suspended) left an annotation ()

You must know why the Council won't supply the information.

North East Lincolnshire council evidently think that if they burry their heads in the sand long enough the problem will go away.

They know there's no provision in the regulations and it has unlawfully imposed almost £200k on ratepayers in court costs since 2001.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/165804520/NELC...

PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear Ms Jerez

I am pleased to acknowledge your request for information, which has been allocated the reference number 5945_1314

Your request has been passed to the relevant department for processing and you can expect your response within the 20 working day limit. If it will take us longer than 20 working days to respond to you, we will inform you of this and provide you with the expected date for receiving a response.

Further information about how we will deal with your Freedom of Information requests is available on our website at: http://www.nelincs.gov.uk/council/the-co....

Please feel free to contact me if you require any further information or assistance quoting the reference number above.

Yours sincerely on behalf of North East Lincolnshire Council

Feedback Officer
Resources Directorate

Dear PPD - FOI,

Who is pulling your strings?

I am not asking for you to verifying my calculations, I asked if the figures disclosed were incorrect in response to this FoI request:

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/c...

That's a simple enough question isn't it?

Yours sincerely,

Cherie Jerez

show quoted sections

PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear Ms Jerez 
 
Thank you for your information request, reference number 5945_1314.
 
I wish to confirm that North East Lincolnshire Council holds the following
information
 
The figures previously disclosed are correct as per the questions raised
in the original Freedom of information requests: 3688_1213, 3737_1213,
4170_1213, 5629_1314   and subsequent responses.
 
If you are unhappy with the response you have received, you have the right
to request an internal review by the Council. If following this you are
still dissatisfied you may contact the Office of the Information
Commissioner. If you wish to request an internal review, please contact me
and I will make the necessary arrangements.
 
Yours sincerely on behalf of North East Lincolnshire Council
 
Feedback Officer
Resources Directorate
 
 
 
Dear PPD - FOI,
 
Who is pulling your strings?
 
I am not asking for you to verifying my calculations, I asked if the
figures disclosed were incorrect in response to this FoI request:
 
[1]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/c...
 
That's a simple enough question isn't it?
 
Yours sincerely,
 
Cherie Jerez
 

show quoted sections

Dear PPD - FOI,

Has this request for information not been sufficiently effective in highlighting the procedure North East Lincolnshire Council follows in Business Rates Recovery to be unlawful?

The council's website suggests nothing has been learned and is continuing to go its own way by ignoring the relevant legislation.

http://www.nelincs.gov.uk/business/busin...

Maybe however, I could be wrong and the Regulations have been amended since the anomaly has been highlighted.

Yours sincerely,

Cherie Jerez

PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear Ms Jerez

With reference to your below email.

Having reviewed your below request, I cannot identify any further requests for information held by North East Lincolnshire. Therefore I will not be taking any further action at this time.

Kind regards

Freedom of Information Officer
North East Lincolnshire Council

Confidentiality Note: I am not authorised to bind my authority contractually, nor to make representations or other statements which may bind the authority in any way via electronic means.

Please consider the environment - do you really need to print this email?

show quoted sections

Dear PPD - FOI,

Do whatever you like, but it just seems a bit ungrateful (not to mention stubborn) the fact NELC has been alerted to unlawfully taking money of business ratepayers – exposing it to legal challenge – but appears to be carrying on regardless.

Don't say I haven't warned you.

Good day.

Yours sincerely,

Cherie Jerez

Dear PPD - FOI,

It appears from looking at NELC's webpage (What happens if I don't pay my business rates), that the council still carries out its enforcement of NNDR prosecutions unlawfully:

http://www.nelincs.gov.uk/business/busin...

Does NELC continue to accept costs payments in cases where Liability Orders have not been obtained?

Yours sincerely,

Cherie Jerez

PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear Ms Jerez

 

I am pleased to acknowledge your request for information, which has been
allocated the reference number 7359_1415

Your request has been passed to the relevant department for processing and
you can expect your response within the 20 working day limit. If it will
take us longer than 20 working days to respond to you, we will inform you
of this and provide you with the expected date for receiving a response.

Further information about how we will deal with your Freedom of
Information requests is available on our website at:
[1]http://www.nelincs.gov.uk/council/the-co....

Please feel free to contact me if you require any further information or
assistance quoting the reference number above.

 

Yours sincerely on behalf of North East Lincolnshire Council

 

Feedback Officer

Resources Directorate

 

Dear PPD - FOI,

 

It appears from looking at NELC's webpage (What happens if I don't pay my
business rates), that the council still carries out its enforcement of
NNDR prosecutions unlawfully:

 

[2]http://www.nelincs.gov.uk/business/busin...

 

Does NELC continue to accept costs payments in cases where Liability
Orders have not been obtained?

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Cherie Jerez

 

show quoted sections

PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear Cherie Jerez

 

I am pleased to acknowledge your Freedom of Information request in
relation to the administration of Council Tax by North East Lincolnshire
Council, which has been given the reference number 7359_1415. Your request
asked:

 

It appears from looking at NELC's webpage (What happens if I don't pay my
business rates), that the council still carries out its enforcement of
NNDR prosecutions unlawfully:

 

[1]http://www.nelincs.gov.uk/business/busin...

 

Does NELC continue to accept costs payments in cases where Liability
Orders have not been obtained?

 

North East Lincolnshire Council have received a number of Freedom of
Information requests relating to the administration of Council Tax.

 

Following a review of the requests we consider they have been made as part
of a wider campaign to gather information from the Council. Therefore in
accordance with the Freedom of Information and Data Protection
(Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004, the Council has made the
decision to aggregate the requests. This means that the estimated cost of
complying with any of the requests would be taken to be the total costs of
complying with all of them.

 

We determine that this request is part of that wider campaign.

 

We have estimated that in the last 60 consecutive working days, that the
time required for the activities needed to locate, retrieve and extract
the information asked for in the requests received would take over 36
hours (£900), exceeding the appropriate limit of £450 (18 hours).

 

Under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, a public
authority is not obliged to comply with a request where the estimated cost
of doing so would exceed the appropriate limit.

Further information about how we handle requests which exceed the
appropriate limit can be found in our Charging Policy for information
requests, which is available on our website at

[2]http://www.nelincs.gov.uk/council/the-co...

 

The Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and
Fees) Regulations 2004 can be viewed at

 

[3]http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2004/...

 

North East Lincolnshire Council, will therefore not be responding to this
request at this time, as to do so would exceed the appropriate limit under
section 12.

 

As the time to taken to respond to these queries has already exceeded the
appropriate limit of £450, it is not possible to provide you with any
advice and assistance that would  refine your requests and allow it to be
processed without exceeding the appropriate limit.

 

As a Council we are committed to publishing as much information as
possible to increase understanding of the services we provide. Details of
the Council’s administration of Council Tax can be found on our website at
[4]http://www.nelincs.gov.uk/resident/counc... this includes
statistical information about Council Tax billing and recovery.

 

If you are unhappy with the response you have received, you have the right
to request an internal review by the Council. If following this you are
still dissatisfied you may contact the Office of the Information
Commissioner. If you wish to request an internal review, please contact me
stating why a refusal notice under section 12 of the Freedom of
Information Act should not be applied, and I will make the necessary
arrangements.

 

Yours sincerely on behalf of North East Lincolnshire Council

 

Paul Ellis

Team Manager - Information Governance, Complaints and Consultation,

Informatics and Research, Resources Directorate

 

 

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Dear PPD - FOI,

Unless you state something to the contrary I'll take your response to mean "YES" the council still carries out its enforcement of NNDR prosecutions unlawfully.

Yours sincerely,

Cherie Jerez

Dear PPD - FOI,

I refer to your message dated 23 April 2014.

I'm writing to make you aware that the exemption applied (Regulation 5(2)(b) of S.I. 2004/3244) no longer applies because more than 60 consecutive working days have elapsed since 16 April 2014 when the request (7359_1415) was submitted. I trust the council will now disclose the information I requested.

Yours sincerely,

Cherie Jerez

Cherie Jerez left an annotation ()

It could not have been made clearer in the 3rd September 2013 email ( https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/n... ) that NELC was imposing court costs unlawfully (without obtaining a court order). However, it continues, even to this day, advertising the fact that it adds these costs to business ratepayers bills without – as the law requires – obtaining a liability order from the court.

http://www.nelincs.gov.uk/business/busin...

Beharrell, Adele, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear Ms Jerez

Further to you below email if you wish to resubmit your request for information held by North East Lincolnshire Council, your request wioll be considered in line with the Freedom of information act.

Kind regards

Not protectively marked

Adele Beharrell
Technical Professional Advisor – Information Governance and Complaints
Strategy Change and Improvement Team| North East Lincolnshire Council
T: (01472) 326427 [email address] | [email address]
Cleethorpes Civic Offices, Knoll Street, Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, DN35 8LN

Confidentiality Note: I am not authorised to bind my authority contractually, nor to make representations or other statements which may bind the authority in any way via electronic means.

Please consider the environment - do you really need to print this email?

Not protectively marked

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Beharrell, Adele, North East Lincolnshire Council

Beharrell, Adele would like to recall the message, "Freedom of Information Request 7359_1415".
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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>This electronic message contains information from North East Lincolnshire Council
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above immediately. Activity and use of the North East Lincolnshire email system
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PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear Ms Jerez

Further to you below email. If you wish to resubmit your request for information held by North East Lincolnshire Council, your request will be considered in line with the Freedom of information act.

Should you require any further assistance please do contact me.

Kind regards

Feedback Officer
North East Lincolnshire Council

Confidentiality Note: I am not authorised to bind my authority contractually, nor to make representations or other statements which may bind the authority in any way via electronic means.

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