Details of all Council Tax enforcement agents and actions for past year
Request received 21 November 2025
Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please provide the following information relating to Council Tax liabilities for the financial year 2024/25.
For clarity: this request refers to all Council Tax accounts where liability fell within the period 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, regardless of when the bill was issued.
Please include all accounts where liability covered the whole financial year or any part of the financial year, including part-year tenancies and mid-year changes of liability.
1. Council Tax enforcement actions
a. Number of summonses issued for non-payment of council tax
b. Number of Liability Orders granted by magistrates for non-payment of council tax
c. Number of cases referred to enforcement agents (bailiffs)
d. Number of enforcement letters issued by enforcement agents on behalf of the council
e. Number of enforcement visits made by enforcement agents on behalf of the council
2. Fees and charges
a. The summons fee charged
b. The Liability Order fee charged
c. A breakdown of how these fees are calculated or determined
3. Enforcement agent firms used
a. The names of all enforcement agent companies used by the council for council tax collection, recovery, and enforcement during 2024/25
(Please note: I am requesting only the names of the enforcement firms, not contract values or commercially sensitive information.)
4. Households in receipt of Council Tax Reduction (CTR) a. Number of cases referred to enforcement agents where the household was in receipt of CTR b. Number of Liability Orders granted where the household was in receipt of CTR c. For Liability Orders involving households on CTR, a split by:
o Working-age households
o Pension-age households
5. Attachment of Benefits and Attachment of Earnings a. Number of Attachment of Benefits (AoB) requests sent to DWP (e.g., UC or legacy benefits) b. Total value of the debt included in AoB requests (regardless of deductions taken) c. Number of Attachment of Earnings Orders (AoEOs) issued d. Total value of the debt included in AoEOs e. Number of households subject to AoEOs who were in receipt of CTR
Responded 10 December 2025
1a. 2401
Please note that this is a count of all summonses issued for bills relating to the period 01.04.2024 31.03.2025 (inclusive). Where a summons was withdrawn on the same date as issue, this has not been counted.
1b. 1923
1c. 1172 cases were referred to enforcement agents a total of 1322 times.
In this case, "Case" refers to each presentation to the court for a liability order (represented as a case number in your database)
1d. ARPE - 1,062 - Total amount of letters to properties, some properties would get multiple letters but only charged once.
Bristow & Sutor - Information Refused Under Section 12(1) Compliance Exceeds the Appropriate Limit. Please see note below.
1e.
ARPE - 1,332 - Total amount of visits made to properties, some properties would get multiple visits but only charged once.
Bristow & Sutor - Information Refused Under Section 12(1) Compliance Exceeds the Appropriate Limit. Please see note below.
2a. Each summons attracted a charge of £50.00
2b. Each liability order attracted a charge of either £25.00 or £264.00
As the request was a little unclear as to whether or not it wanted the base charge for the above, or the total amount of fees charged, I have determined the following total fees:
In respect of bills raised for the period 2024-2025:
Total Summons Costs Total Summons Costs (after write offs)
Total Liability Order Costs Total Liability Order Costs (after write off)
£111,550.00 £94,800.00 £44,903.00 £41,878.00
2c. Please see attachment
3. ARPE Enforcement Agency & Bristow & Sutor
4a. There were 363 cases which were referred to enforcement agents
4b. There were 516 cases which were granted a liability order
4c.
Elderly 36
Working Age 486
The count does not match the total in 4b - the reason for this is that 6 cases transited from Working Age to Pension Age during the year, so have been counted twice.
5a.There were 56 referrals over 45 accounts
5b.£15,227.97
Please note that were an account has been referred more than once, the value of the debt for each such referral has been included in the above total
5c. There were 155 orders issued over 136 accounts
5d. £164,978.05
5e. 2
Note from Bristow & Suitor regarding Q1d & Q1e:
Based on consultation with Bristow and Suitor operational teams , it is estimated that the work required to identify, collate and extract the requested data would exceed 18 hours.
The tasks involved include:
• Searching multiple systems and records
• Manually reviewing case files to confirm relevant activities
• Extracting data not held in a reportable format
• Checking and verifying the accuracy of the extracted information.
These activities, across the volume of cases involved, would exceed the 18-hour limit even using a conservative estimate. On this basis, we are applying Section 12 of the FOI Act and are unable to comply with the request. We are happy to assist the requester in refining or narrowing the scope of their request so that it falls within the appropriate limit.