£0.7 million discrepancy in Council Tax Magistrates' court costs (2013/14)

The request was partially successful.

Dear North East Lincolnshire Council,

CIPFA revenue statistics show that North East Lincolnshire Council raised £1,194,000 in court costs for council tax cases in 2013/14.

The same source shows that 17,197 summonses were issued and £533,000 was collected for the same tax year leaving a difference of £661,000 (equivalent to 9,442 summonsed accounts uncollected)

Please provide the information that NELC holds which accounts for an equivalent 55% of summonsed accounts that did not have the standard sum (£70) collected.

Yours faithfully,

Alf Robinson

PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear Mr Robinson

 

I am pleased to acknowledge your request for information, which has been
allocated the reference number 8405_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

 

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PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear Mr Robinson

 

Thank you for your information request reference 8405_1415. Your request
appears to be based on your own interpretation of information and as such
is not requesting recorded information that is held by North East
Lincolnshire Council.

 

It may be helpful if I explain that the Freedom of Information Act (2000)
gives individuals and organisations the right of access to all types of
recorded information held, at the time the request is received, by public
authorities such as North East Lincolnshire Council. Section 84 of the Act
states that in order for a request for information to be handled as a
Freedom of Information (FOI) request, it must be for recorded information.
For example, a Freedom of Information request would be for a copy of a
policy, rather than an explanation as to why we have that policy in place.
On occasion, North East Lincolnshire Council receives requests that do not
ask for recorded information, but ask more general questions about, for
example, a policy, opinion or a decision. In this instance I am satisfied
that your request falls outside of the scope of the Freedom of Information
Act as it is not a request for recorded information but is a request for
information based on your interpretation of figures reported by North East
Lincolnshire Council.

To clarify North East Lincolnshire Council is unable to provide any
information relating to the “55% of summonsed accounts that did not have
the standard sum (£70) collected” as interpreted by you, as this is not a
request for recorded information. However, as you have query regarding
these figures, if you would like to discuss these directly with the
Council Tax service you can contact them via email on
[1][email address] or by telephone on 01472 326287 (option 1).

If you believe that your request for information has not been handled in
accordance with the Freedom of Information Act, you have the right to
request an internal review by the Council. Please be clear about which
elements of the Council’s response or handling of the request you are
unhappy with, and would like the Council to address during the internal
review process.  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

 

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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 '£0.7 million discrepancy in Council Tax Magistrates' court costs (2013/14)'.

I cannot see how my request would relate to anything other than recorded information.

The figures which CIPFA hold have presumably been submitted by NELC therefore held as recorded information by the council. As such, the request, by definition, must be with respect to recorded information.

It is therefore not known how NELC can reasonably state that my request revolves around an interpretation of the figures.

The discrepancy between the costs imposed and those collected must somehow relate to data held by the council.

If costs have been raised but not collected then presumably, in the majority of cases, they will have been waived for some reason.

Why?

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

Yours faithfully,

Alf Robinson

PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear Mr Robinson

 

I am pleased to acknowledge your correspondence and wish to confirm that
an Internal Review of the handling of your Information Request 8405_1415
is to take place.

 

The Internal Review 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

 

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PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear Mr Robinson

Further to your request an Internal Review has taken place into North East
Lincolnshire Council's handling of your information request 8405_1415,
concerning Magistrate court costs.

I have reviewed the response provided to you and the handling of your
request and find that it has been handled in accordance with the Freedom
of Information Act and you have been provided with the recorded
information held by North East Lincolnshire Council.

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

 

Corporate Feedback Officer

North East Lincolnshire Council

 

 

 

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Baz Frodham left an annotation ()

Page 181 of the document in the link below:

http://fs-drupal-rochford.s3.amazonaws.c...

"6. Liability Order Hearing

• If the Council Tax and summons costs are paid before the hearing date then the hearing will not proceed.

• Technically where the Council Tax element is paid prior to the court hearing leaving the summons costs outstanding it is possible to proceed with the hearing and obtain a liability order and thereafter enforce the debt. However it is policy at Rochford that in these cases the summons would be withdrawn. However it should be pointed out that the justice element of the costs would have been [borne] by the Council"

Take particular note of the last sentence:

"However it should be pointed out that the justice element of the costs would have been [borne] by the Council"

What that really means is that the justice element of the costs would have been borne by the Council Taxpayer. In the case of NELC and the data in this FOI request (equivalent to 9,442 summonsed accounts uncollected) the 'justice element of the costs' would amount to £28,326.

See this for more worrying implications.

(Stealth tax – exploiting Magistrates' court fees in Council Tax applications)

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

Baz Frodham left an annotation ()

(Stealth tax – exploiting Magistrates' court fees in Council Tax applications)

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