§ Mr. RedmondTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will give the dates of, and the events which led to, the activation of the Bellwin scheme since 1 April 1989.
§ Mr. PortilloThe Bellwin scheme has been activated in England on the following occasions since 1 April 1989:
application which can be made at any time up to 1 October 1990 or such later date as a charging authority allows arid all adjustments are made with effect from 1 April 1990.
§ Mr. LeadbitterTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will consider in his forthcoming review of proposals for modification of the community charge that element which has been added to the charge for local government services to meet the losses on non-payment of the charge to be returned to community charge payers taking into account the actual non-payment before the end of the financial year, and after all legal steps have been taken to obtain payment.
§ Mr. ChopeNo. Local authorities have always had to make an allowance for losses on collection and in this respect the community charge is no different from the old domestic rating system. The single change introduced is the design of the community charge demand notice which identifies this element so that local charge payers can consider whether their authority is being efficient in collecting the community charge.
§ Mr. HardyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the actual level of outstanding debt faced by Rotherham local authority; and what was the level recognised by his Department for the purposes of the standard spending assessment for 1990–91.
§ Mr. Chope[holding answer 14 May 1990]: The actual level of outstanding debt, as at 31 March 1990, is not yet known. The assumed level of outstanding debt as defined for the standard spending assessment is £66,657,656; this figure relates to 31 March 1990 and includes a share of the assumed outstanding debt for the South Yorkshire passenger transport authority.
§ Mr. RedmondTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether, where the cost of community charge collection exceeds the amount outstanding from an individual, and the local authority should write off the charge, the local authority will be deemed responsible to have collected this amount, and be charged for it by central Government, when assessing the community charge payable for the following financial year.
565W
§ Mr. ChopeThe amount of grant payable to each charging authority is calculated on the basis of the number of people shown on the register as being liable to pay the charge. It does not vary according to the number of charges actually collected.