Issue - meetings

Report of the Head of Corporate Resources

Further to Minute No. 13 of 13 September 2016 the Committee considered the report of the Head of Corporate Resources that reviewed how well the Enforcement Agent’s Code of Practice was meeting its objectives in terms of fairness and effectiveness; and seeking any comments about the Code of Practice for consideration by the Cabinet Member - Regulatory, Compliance and Corporate Services.

The report indicated that the Code of Practice that was attached as an Appendix to the report, outlined the way that Enforcement Agents working on behalf of Sefton Council should conduct themselves; that new legislation relating to the Tribunal Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 came into force from 6 April 2014 and Sefton Council’s Code of Practice for Enforcement Agent Services was revised to reflect those changes; and that the Ministry of Justice had promised a staged process review of the bailiff reforms one year, three years and, if necessary, five years after they came into force. However, the outcome of the one year review had not been published and it was unclear if further reviews would take place.

Regarding the identification of mental health issues and vulnerability the report described how enforcement agent staff, both office based and field agents, underwent extensive training on vulnerability and that they all received welfare training and were issued with guidelines from organisations such as MIND and the Royal College of Psychiatrists on how to identify potential mental health issues. Staff were also taught questions and techniques with trigger words that may identify a person with mental health issues. Cases were referred to in-house specialist welfare advisors who would undertake further sensitive enquiries, liaise with the Council and where appropriate would signpost to specialist advice agencies.

The report also indicated that during the period 1 August 2016 to 31 July 2017 Sefton sent 15,544 cases to Enforcement Agent companies (10,466 relating to Revenues Services and 5098 relating to Parking Services); that 801 potentially vulnerable cases were identified (646 relating to Revenues Services and 155 relating to Parking Services); and that the Revenues Service put a marker on those cases which had been returned to the Council relating to vulnerability issues and would review the vulnerability status on a regular basis and check if the status had changed.

The report also detailed that as part of its performance monitoring activity the Council required regular reports (each quarter) from the Enforcement Agent companies detailing the nature of feedback from their customers, whether it was a complaint, comment or compliment together with outcomes; and that there were 30 Revenues Service and 13 Parking Services complaints against Enforcement Agent action that were received and investigated by the companies themselves.

The report concluded by detailing initiatives by Revenue Service and Enforcement Agents.

Members asked questions/made comments on the following issues:-

·       Reference was made to the figures in the table contained in paragraph 3.4.1 of the report relating to the number of complaints received by  Enforcement Agent companies

RESOLVED:

That the report on the Code of Practice for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13