Members to receive a presentation from Paul Corney, Head of Anglia Revenues Partnership.
Minutes:
Councillor Boden explained that Paul Corney, Head of Anglia Revenues Partnership (ARP) had been unable to attend today’s meeting and introduced Stuart Philpot, Strategic Support Manager for ARP.
Members considered the Annual Review of ARP presented by Stuart Philpot.
The presentation included information regarding ARP’s collection of Business Rates and Council Tax for 2017/18 and the new ARP Enforcement team. Stuart Philpot explained that for consistency purposes, members of staff work on one set of data across all seven partners of ARP. He highlighted that the collection of Council Tax had exceeded target however the collection of Business Rates had fallen slightly short of target. He explained that this is due to valuation figures in 2010 and the large sum of refunds paid due to this. He highlighted that in relation to the processing speeds of Benefits, this has been improved by staff vacancies being filled but can be heavily affected by the annual billing period.
Stuart Philpot said that ARP are very proud of the Enforcement Team and their achievements since their formation in 2015. He told members that over £12.5 million attributed to ARP Enforcement had been generated for partners, with almost £3 million being generated this year. Additional enforcement work is being undertaken by ARP on behalf of South Norfolk Council and Norwich City Council.
Stuart Philpot provided information in relation to the Fraud and Compliance team at ARP. He explained that following the withdrawal of funding by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), ARP’s Fraud and Compliance team had identified over £380,000 worth of fraud. He explained the associated costs to the Council for being a partner of ARP and highlighted the savings the Council have made by joining the partnership.
Stuart Philpot informed members that a number of developmental initiatives are being undertaken by ARP that will positively impact both staff and members of the public, including investment into automation and robotics. He thanked members and invited them to ask questions.
Councillor Boden thanked Stuart Philpot for his presentation.
Members asked questions, made comments and received responses as follows;
1. Councillor Boden said ARP had previously considered creating a Trading Company and asked for an update on this. Stuart Philpot explained that the ARP Joint Committee had decided to put this project on hold and focus on the Enforcement side of the business instead. He highlighted that discussions had taken place and it had been decided by the Joint Committee that the Partnership was at its optimum level with seven partners, as expansion would result in savings being reduced across all partners.
2. Councillor Owen asked that in future these figures are provided to members prior to the meeting to allow them sufficient time to consider.
3. Councillor Boden asked what ARP’s target was for Council Tax collection as the figures provided show that ARP have exceed this by over 1%. He highlighted that their target must be significantly below the Council’s budgeted figure. Stuart Philpot said this figure is calculated based on the previous year’s performance and is around 97%. Mark Saunders said the Council’s budget is based on the recovery rate of Council Tax collected and the Council use a figure of approximately 99%. He highlighted that the recovery of this can take several years and will fluctuate throughout, but will eventually end on this figure.
4. Councillor Boden said the presentation had shown that ARP have substantially exceeded their target for Council Tax collection which suggests the previous year’s target was incorrect or the Council is in a much stronger position than it was in previous years. He asked if the current financial year’s target was exceedingly higher than last year’s target. Mark Saunders explained that the year on year figures for Council Tax recovery do vary and although it can take between ten-fifteen years to achieve, the Council still budget for an overall recovery rate of 99%. He highlighted that this is the formula used during the process of setting Council Tax.
5. Councillor Boden asked that members are provided with; the target of Council Tax collection in 2017/18, the figure achieved in 2017/18 and the target set for 2018/19.
6. Councillor Booth asked at what point the Council and ARP decide that it is not pragmatic to pursue an outstanding debt. Mark Saunders explained that the Council have a provision in their accounts for outstanding debt after five-six years. He highlighted that this does not stop the Council pursuing the debt after this time and ARP will continue to pursue it too.
7. Councillor Booth asked if it was cost effective to pursue outstanding debts after this period of time. Councillor Boden highlighted that there are systems in place that highlight new information in relation to an outstanding debt or debtor.
8. Councillor Booth explained that he had had an issue with a constituent in which it was increasingly difficult to speak to specific officers at ARP. He asked Stuart Philpot if there were plans in place for ARP to improve this link between them and members of the public. Stuart Philpot said whilst they want to get information to people as easily as possible, they are trying to encourage people to use the self-service side of their website. He highlighted that when members of the public speak to officers at ARP, they will receive the same level of service and advice across all ARP sites and advisors.
9. Councillor Booth said whilst he appreciates the benefits of people using the self-service system, members of the public cannot speak to specific officers at ARP when issues arise. Stuart Philpot explained that this would require network work to be undertaken to integrate the ARP network with partner authorities. He highlighted that there is an escalation process that allows Customer Services officers to transfer to a member of the team, if they cannot deal with the individual’s query.
10.Councillor Booth asked if there was a universal number available for ARP. Stuart Philpot confirmed that this is an ongoing project that ARP are currently working on.
11.Councillor Boden highlighted that most of ARP’s work follows a straightforward process and does not require a large amount of human intervention unless there is a particular issue. Stuart Philpot agreed.
12.Councillor Boden asked if ARP are considering the introduction of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into their systems as part of their automation and robotics work. Stuart Philpot said ARP does not currently require AI as the processes they follow are fairly restrictive. With robotics, the information will be treated exactly the same between cases without the need for AI.
13.Councillor Boden said although robotics allow this for a restrictive process, there are a number of instances that fall outside of set parameters of which AI would be able to process. Stuart Philpot said most of the information ARP receive is straight forward and therefore AI would only benefit a very small proportion of their work. He confirmed that the ARP Joint Committee had endorsed the introduction of automation and robotics. He assured members that ARP are working hard to ensure the complex parameters of this system are set correctly.
14.Councillor Booth asked what impact the introduction of Universal Credit has had on ARP and how they are managing this. Stuart Philpot said there had been significant delays with the roll-out of Universal Credit and these have caused problems. He explained that ARP have a representative in the National Local Government Association Steering Group and they are continually lobbying Parliament to improve the process.
15.Councillor Owen said it was important that officers have local knowledge when investigating fraud and compliance cases and asked if ARP have officers based locally within their partner authorities. Stuart Philpot confirmed that ARP have visiting officers that work across all authorities.
16.Councillor Boden asked what comparative figures were produced by ARP to demonstrate the efficiency and cost effectiveness of its service provider compared with others. Stuart Philpot said previously the Chartered Institute of Public Finance (CIPFA) benchmarking data was available however as a unique partnership of seven councils for the delivery of the Revenues and Benefits service, currently there is no like for like partnership for comparison purposes. He highlighted that the cost to Fenland District Council had reduced over the last few years which shows the effective response of ARP’s operation.
17.Councillor Boden said there are a number of other amalgamations of Council’s Revenue & Benefits services across the Country and asked if these could be compared. Stuart Philpot said if ARP found a similar partnership they would compare figures.
18.Councillor Boden asked for confirmation on the number of partners within ARP as one of the partner authorities had recently announced a merger. Stuart Philpot confirmed that in April 2019 and following the merger, there will be five partner authorities within ARP.
19.Councillor Boden asked if any work had been carried out in relation to the scalability of services to see if additional partners would be of benefit to the service. Stuart Philpot explained that increasing partners would change the entire structure of ARP and it was agreed by the Joint Committee that ARP had reached its optimum size of organisation as additional partners would not offer the benefits needed to justify the risk.
20.Councillor Boden said in principle, adding a local authority to the partnership of a similar size would reduce overheads. Stuart Philpot agreed in principle but highlighted that the management and risk of adding another partner had been carefully considered by the Joint Committee.
21.Councillor Booth said in the Overview & Scrutiny Panel meeting on 28 November 2017, ARP had reported only twelve complaints made against them last year. He asked if this figure had increased since last year and asked if ARP were confident that they were capturing this data correctly. Stuart Philpot confirmed that there had been no significant increase in the number of complaints but agreed to provide members with these figures after the meeting.
22.Councillor Humphrey thanked Stuart Philpot for his presentation but asked that at next year’s meeting, for this item, a report is provided for members to consider. Stuart Philpot agreed.
23.Councillor Boden thanked Stuart Philpot for his attendance and response to member’s questions.
(Councillor Boden declared an interest by virtue of the fact that he is a member of the LGSS Joint Committee).