The Scottish Government

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This statistics publication notice provides Council Tax ( CT) collection figures by Scottish Local Authorities for the financial year 2008-09 and previous years. The key points are:

• In 2008-09, for Scotland as a whole, the total amount of Council Tax billed (excluding Council Tax Benefit) was £1.959 billion. Of this total, £1.850 billion was collected by 31 March 2009 (see table 1).
• The provisional Scotland total in-year CT collection rate for 2008-09 was 94.4%, a 0.2 percentage point increase from the previous year (see table 2).
• Between 1993-94 and 2008-09, the overall total amount of Council Tax billed in Scotland was £22.359 billion, of which £21.457 billion, or 96.0% was collected by 31 March 2009 (see table 1).
• Provisional in-year CT collection rates for 2008-09 ranged from 90.0 per cent to 97.6 per cent.
• These provisional figures suggest that 13 out of 32 councils have improved on their 2007-08 in-year CT collection rate figures published by Audit Scotland. One council showed the same collection rate. The remaining 18 councils showed slight decreases, with 11 of these remaining above the Scotland average.

The in-year Council Tax collection rate is an Accounts Commission Statutory Performance Indicator. The figures for 2008-09 in this Statistical Publication Notice are provisional, pre-audit estimates. Audited figures for 2008-09 will be published by Audit Scotland in due course and can be found at http://www.audit-scotland.gov.uk/performance/service/ under 'Corporate management' (indicator 6).

TABLES

Table 1: Summary of reported amounts of Council Tax billed and received: Scotland

Table 2: Summary of in-year Council Tax percentage received, by year to which the bill refers: Scotland and Local Authorities

Table 3: Summary of total Council Tax percentage received by 31 March 2009, by year to which bill refers: Scotland and Local Authorities

BACKGROUND NOTES

1. DATA SOURCES

1.1 The Scottish Government's Council Tax and Community Charge Receipts Return ( CTRR) collects data from Local Authorities on the total amounts of Council Tax billed and the total amounts collected for all years from 1993-94 to date, and is the source of all the data in tables 1 to 3, with the exception of the in-year collection rates in Table 2 for 1998-99 to 2007-08. The CTRR data is collected after the end of the financial year, but before audit, and is therefore provisional.

1.2 The in-year collection rates in Table 2 for 1998-99 to 2007-08 are the published Statutory Performance Indicators produced by Audit Scotland. The 2008-09 in-year collection rates should be treated as provisional figures, with final audited figures for 2008-09 to be published by Audit Scotland.

2. DATA DEFINITIONS

2.1 All data are based on the actual amounts received from taxpayers, and are net of all discounts (e.g. 25% single persons discount) and exemptions. Surcharges are also excluded where possible, although some councils cannot do this for pre 1996-97 figures (see footnotes in tables for details).

2.2 The figures exclude Council Tax Benefit, are before any amounts written off for bad or doubtful debt, and reflect any correction to liabilities made after billing.

2.3 Figures from 1993-94 to 1995-96 include the amounts billed and collected for Water Charges.

3. THIS IS A NATIONAL STATISTICS PUBLICATION

3.1 "This is a National Statistics publication. It has been produced to high professional standards set out in the National Statistics Code of Practice Protocol - see http://www.statistics.gov.uk/about_ns/cop/default.asp

These statistics undergo regular quality assurance reviews to ensure that they meet customer needs. They are produced free from any political interference."

Details of pre-release access will be provided in the Scottish Government Statistics Website under 'Forthcoming Releases' - see http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/03/18798

4. ENQUIRIES

4.1 Public enquiries (non-media) about the information contained in this Statistics Publication Notice should be addressed to:

Telephone 0131 244 7033 or e-mail lgfstats@scotland.gsi.gov.uk .

4.2 Media enquiries about the information in this Statistics Publication Notice should be addressed to Tim Jays on 0131 244 5122.

Internet: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/bulletins/00743

Local Government Finance Statistics website: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Local-Government-Finance

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