Glasgow and Edinburgh top UK league for using bailiffs

SCOTLAND'S two biggest cities top a UK table of councils using bailiffs to collect debts such as unpaid council tax and parking fines.

Edinburgh City Council called in bailiffs, or sheriff officers, 287,315 times in just three years, while Glasgow's local authority asked for 281,718 cases of debt to be recovered.

Edinburgh and Glasgow were well ahead of some of England's biggest cities, including the UK's second city of Birmingham, which was in third place with 223,810 referrals to bailiffs.

The figures for 2007-10 were revealed by 320 of the UK's 433 councils, under a freedom of information request by Big Brother Watch, a civil liberties and privacy campaign group.

Glasgow topped the UK list for cases of unpaid council tax recovery cases, with 228,769 referrals to sheriff officers. Edinburgh was in second place, with a figure of 218,483.

Edinburgh came top in the overall debt recovery league of parking charges, referring 68,832 unpaid tickets to bailiffs compared with 52,949 in Glasgow.

Edinburgh has the third highest parking enforcement record in the UK, behind Barnet and Newham in England. Glasgow is in seventh place.

Glasgow and Edinburgh councils said their high places in the table was due to their determination to take "appropriate steps" to recover money owed to the public purse.

Edinburgh finance committee convener Phil Wheeler said: "Council tax income accounts for over a fifth of our funding. It is essential we make every effort to collect it to ensure we have sufficient funds to provide vital services to Edinburgh residents.

"The council passes accounts for recovery to the sheriff officers in cases where payments have not been received and reminder letters ignored.

"It is only fair for the majority of citizens who do pay their council tax and other charges that we take appropriate steps to recover the outstanding sums."

CASELOADS

1. Edinburgh 287,315

2. Glasgow 281,718

3. Birmingham 223,810

4. Liverpool 167,039

5. Manchester 149,635

6. Newham 131,542

7. Leeds 124,379

8. Barnet 114,011

9. Fife 91,423

10. Redbridge 82,718

A Glasgow City Council spokesman said: "The council is committed to doing everything it can to assist families, individuals and businesses. However, we will pursue those who won't pay."

But John Wilson, SNP Holyrood candidate for Coatbridge and Chryston, said: "When using resources to recover debts, it's important to avoid a heavy- handed approach and not to target the less well off."

Daniel Hamilton, director of Big Brother Watch said: "These are shocking figures. There's a good number of Scottish local authorities in the top places."