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Written question asked by Barry Sheerman (Labour) on Tuesday, 22 October 2019, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 24 October 2019. It was answered by Chris Philp (Conservative) on Monday, 28 October 2019 on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.

Council Tax and Television Licences: Non-payment

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many committal orders were made by magistrates’ courts in England and Wales for default of payment of fines (a) in total, (b) for a conviction for the non-payment of a TV licence fee fine and (c) for the non-payment of council tax in each year since 1995.

Answer

HMCTS can provide data from 2009. Information prior to 2009 is held on legacy systems and is not collated centrally. Such data could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

The number of committal orders made (counted by committal warrants issued) for default of payment of fines since 2009 is below. It is not possible to extract information about committal warrants issued in relation to a conviction for the non-payment of a TV Licence fee without disproportionate cost.

The number of committal orders made (determined as committal warrants issued) in relation to the non-payment of council tax is also below.

Year

Total number of Fine Default Committal Warrants Issued

Number of Fine Default Committal Warrants Issued against females.

Total Number of Council Tax Committal Warrants Issued

Number of Council Tax Committal Warrants Issued against females.

2009 1

9,757

943

89

21

2010

13,117

1,142

122

43

2011

13,572

1,182

108

33

2012

14,169

1,234

107

38

2013

13,376

1,245

108

36

2014

14,122

1,236

89

29

2015

12,767

1,085

69

22

2016

12,463

1,043

112

42

2017

11,837

844

41

11

2018

9,308

548

16

~

2019 2

3,651

208

8

~

1 2009 is for the period 1st April to 31st December 2009.

2 2019 is for the period 1st January to 30th June 2019:

Data Notes:

  • Data are taken from a live management information system and can change over time.
  • Data are management information and are not subject to the same level of checks as official statistics.
  • The data provided are the most recent available and for that reason might differ slightly from any previously published information.
  • The Fine Default and Council Tax data provided is a count of the number of committal warrants issued.
  • For data from 1st April 2009 onwards, TV Licensing is the prosecutor, and the enforcer of the debt, so they would hold the detail that is required. HMCTS is only able to provide the number of prosecutions brought by the TV Licensing, and how many resulted in imprisonment.
  • Information as to outstanding debt is not recorded within HMCTS statistics available through Libra. Files not destroyed under the retention schedule (e.g. within three years old) would have to be checked on a court by court basis.
  • It is possible to identify committals in relation to Council Tax because Council Tax data is not a subset of the Fine Enforcement data; it is based on a Civil process in the magistrates’ courts rather than the enforcement of unpaid fines, and hence has different Libra offence codes.
  • Information prior to 1st April 2009 is held on legacy systems and is not collated centrally.
  • The data extract for this PQ included gender. However, generic titles such as Doctor, Reverend etc which would not determine the gender are not included within the data. Therefore, only where Female has been specified has this been used in the Female table.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
3554
Session
2019-19
Grouped for answer
Yes
Subjects
Council tax Committal proceedings Non-payment Unpaid fines Television licences
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk