FOI request (FOIR-477476825)

Non Domestic rebills

Requested Tue 10 January 2023
Responded  Tue 07 February 2023

For financial years 2019/20, 2020/21, and 2021/22 please provide the following:

1. How many Non Domestic rebills have you produced due to changes in circumstances brought to your attention after the change? I am referring to Liability changes and removal of Small Business Rate Relief.

2. How many Council Tax rebills have you produced due to changes in circumstances brought to your attention after the change? I am referring to Liability changes and removal of Single Person Discount.

3. When did you last review Small Business Rate Relief?

4. When reviewed, how many accounts had Small Business Rate Relief removed retrospectively?

5. Please provide a year-by-year breakdown of the number of accounts that had Small Business Rates Relief removed. That is, how many were backdated to financial year 2013/14, 2014/15, 2015/16, and so on?

6. How many fraud prosecutions resulted from this exercise?

7. When did you last review Single Person Discounts?

8. When reviewed, how many accounts had Single Person Discount removed retrospectively?

9. Please provide a year by year breakdown of the number of accounts that had Single Person Discount removed. That is, how many were back dated to 1993/94, 1994/95, 1995/96, and so on?

10. How many Council Tax penalties did you issue as a result of this exercise? And how many were issued for other reasons not SPD?

11. How many fraud prosecutions resulted from this exercise?

12. How many penalties did you issue for failure to return the review form?

13. How many appeals were submitted to the VT as a result of this?

14. Of the appeals submitted, how many were upheld?

15. How many penalties were issued due to incorrect, withheld or changes being reported after the 21 days on Council Tax Reduction?

16. What % of risk has been identified when records have been compared to companies such as Destin Solutions or Experian? This question is not narrowed to the companies given as an example.

Response

1. We issued 3,277 bills in 2019/20, 4,951 in 2020/21, and 3,918 in 2021/22. However, we are unable to confirm how many of those were as a result of SBR or liability change.

2. We issued 54,405 bills in 2019/20, 48,406 in 2020/21, and 52,470 in 2021/22. However, we are unable to confirm how many of those were due to Single Person Discount changes.

3. 2017

4. Information not held

5. Information not held

6. None

7. 2018

8. According to the information on the final report following the review, 546

9. Information not held - the oldest went back to 2015 - there was a 6 year back-dating limit imposed

10. No penalties

11. None

12. None - Single Person Discount would have been removed

13. None

14. Not applicable

15. None

16. Very low risk - 6 cases had SBR removed (via information from Destin) between 2018 and 2022