Debt enforcement agencies in relation to Council Tax
Case reference FOI2023/01374
Published 11 September 2023
Request
I am requesting the following information under the Freedom of Information Act:
1. Since April 2020, has the council at any point used debt enforcement agencies (or similar service providers) in relation to cases of outstanding council tax debt?
If the answer to question 1 is 'no', the council should proceed to questions 8 and 9.
2. What are the debt enforcement agencies referred to in response to question 1?
3. How many council tax debt cases were referred to each of the debt enforcement agencies listed in response to question 2 in each financial year 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23?
4. How much unpaid council tax debt (preferably including any 'penalty' fees/charges) was referred in total to debt enforcement agencies in the financial years 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23 combined? This should be one figure, combining all the debt enforcement agencies and all three financial years
5. How much of the council tax debt stated in response to question 4 was collected after being referred to a debt enforcement agency? Again, this should be one figure combining all agencies and all three financial years (including debt that was collected in a later financial year than when it was referred)
6. The total number of council tax accounts in each council electoral ward in 2022/23 (this is all council tax accounts, not just those carrying debts or referred to debt enforcement agencies). Preferably this should be a whole-year figure, but if that is not possible a snapshot figure will suffice. If possible within the section 12 cost limit, I would like these figures to exclude accounts relating to designated second homes and empty properties
7. The number of council tax accounts that were referred to debt enforcement agencies for council tax debt collection in 2022/23, broken down by electoral ward. This means those accounts where the referral took place during 2022/23. If possible within the section 12 cost limit, I would like these figures to exclude accounts relating to designated second homes and empty properties
8. The total number of council tax accounts in each council electoral ward at present (this is all council tax accounts, not just those carrying debts or referred to debt enforcement agencies). This should be the most recent snapshot figure available. If possible within the section 12 cost limit, I would like these figures to exclude accounts relating to designated second homes and empty properties
9. The number of council tax accounts that currently have unpaid council tax debts relating to financial years prior to 2023/24, broken down by electoral ward. If possible within the section 12 cost limit, I would like these figures to exclude accounts relating to designated second homes and empty properties.
Response
I am requesting the following information under the Freedom of Information Act:
1. Since April 2020, has the council at any point used debt enforcement agencies (or similar service providers) in relation to cases of outstanding council tax debt?
If the answer to question 1 is 'no', the council should proceed to questions 8 and 9.
2. What are the debt enforcement agencies referred to in response to question 1?
3. How many council tax debt cases were referred to each of the debt enforcement agencies listed in response to question 2 in each financial year 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23?
4. How much unpaid council tax debt (preferably including any 'penalty' fees/charges) was referred in total to debt enforcement agencies in the financial years 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23 combined? This should be one figure, combining all the debt enforcement agencies and all three financial years
5. How much of the council tax debt stated in response to question 4 was collected after being referred to a debt enforcement agency? Again, this should be one figure combining all agencies and all three financial years (including debt that was collected in a later financial year than when it was referred)
6. The total number of council tax accounts in each council electoral ward in 2022/23 (this is all council tax accounts, not just those carrying debts or referred to debt enforcement agencies). Preferably this should be a whole-year figure, but if that is not possible a snapshot figure will suffice. If possible within the section 12 cost limit, I would like these figures to exclude accounts relating to designated second homes and empty properties
7. The number of council tax accounts that were referred to debt enforcement agencies for council tax debt collection in 2022/23, broken down by electoral ward. This means those accounts where the referral took place during 2022/23. If possible within the section 12 cost limit, I would like these figures to exclude accounts relating to designated second homes and empty properties
8. The total number of council tax accounts in each council electoral ward at present (this is all council tax accounts, not just those carrying debts or referred to debt enforcement agencies). This should be the most recent snapshot figure available. If possible within the section 12 cost limit, I would like these figures to exclude accounts relating to designated second homes and empty properties
9. The number of council tax accounts that currently have unpaid council tax debts relating to financial years prior to 2023/24, broken down by electoral ward. If possible within the section 12 cost limit, I would like these figures to exclude accounts relating to designated second homes and empty properties.
Regarding questions 7, 8 and 9, this information is not held in a form that would enable it to be located, retrieved and extracted within the Appropriate Time Limit which equates to 18 hours as defined by the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limits and Fees) Regulations 2004.
Electronic reporting systems are unable to run a report for this information as we do not hold the data broken down by electoral wards. To ascertain the data requested officers would need to manually check all the case files.
An initial search has shown that 7129 case files were referred to Enforcement Agents and would need to be checked for this information in this way, and it is estimated that it would take approximately 5 minutes to check each file.
This would at a conservative estimate take at least 594 hours to complete. Where the Limit is exceeded Public Authorities are not obliged to supply the information requested by virtue of S12 of the Act. Please take this letter as a refusal notice under S17 of the Act.
Within the appropriate limit we would be able to respond to questions 1 - 5. We could provide a total number, the number of second homes and number of empty properties for question 6. The total number referred for question 7 and the total number together with the number of second homes and empty properties for Question 8.
Please let us know if you would like us to provide you with responses to these questions.
Documents
This is Herefordshire Council's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.
You can browse our other responses or make a new FOI request.