Freedom of information response
Debt Collection
1. Which enforcement agent or agents does your council employ for matters involving council debts?
2. How many court summons have your council issued in the following years: so far in 2023/24; 2022/23; 2021/22; 2020/21; 2019/ 2020; 2018/ 19?
3. How many times have the council referred to enforcement agents for the purpose of debt collection for the following years: so far in 2023/24; 2022/23; 2021/22; 2020/21; 2019/ 2020; 2018/19?
4. For those who have been visited please provide an anonymised breakdown of demographics in the categories of household income and race of occupants.
5. Has the council carried out any quality impact assessments on debt collection services? If so, would I be able to request access to this document?
6. How many complaints have been made to your council due to actions taken by enforcement agents in the following years: so far in 2023/24; 2022/23; 2021/22; 2020/21; 2019/ 2020; 2018/ 19?
- Hambury Tilmond Ltd, London Warrant Enforcement Ltd, Stanford and Green Ltd, Whyte & Co
|
Financial Year |
No of Summons issued |
Cases issued to EA |
|
2018/19 |
6384 |
3908 |
|
2019/20 |
5943 |
4501 |
|
2020/21 |
0 |
701 |
|
2021/22 |
6799 |
4238 |
|
2022/23 |
8030 |
4512 |
|
2023 to date |
3958 |
2782 |
- See table above
- This level of data is not compiled by matching to external databases by the Enforcement Agencies (S12)
- Enforcement Agents adhere to all relevant accreditations eg integrated management system that is accredited to ISO 9001 (Quality), ISO 14001 (Environmental), ISO 27001 (Information Security) and BS 18477 (Vulnerability). Also have Cyber Essentials Plus and are accredited to CHAS (Health & Safety). Regular meetings are held with the Enforcement Agents to monitor performance.
- Data to be provided by the Complaints Team and reviewed by Debt Management
The report has taken 3 hours to run/filter to give us 33 cases.
It’s estimated that it would then take around 15 minutes per case to review, which would be: 15mins x 33 cases = 495mins (8.25 hours)
8.25 hours + 3 hours = 11.25 hours
To determine root cause – a further 8 hours.
In total the estimate is 19.25 hours and would therefore exceed 18 hours.
|
Financial Year |
No of Summons issued |
Cases issued to EA |
|
2018/19 |
6384 |
3908 |
|
2019/20 |
5943 |
4501 |
|
2020/21 |
0 |
701 |
|
2021/22 |
6799 |
4238 |
|
2022/23 |
8030 |
4512 |
|
2023 to date |
3958 |
2782 |
In issuing our response the council have applied S12 of the Freedom of Information Act.
This means that the council does not have to comply with your request if the cost of doing so exceeds the ‘appropriate limit’, which for local authorities is 18 hours. This applies to the time taken spent locating and collating the requested information.