Part III Community Charges
102 Transitory enforcement provisions for England and Wales.
1
Schedule 4 to the M1 1988 Act (community charges: enforcement) shall be amended as follows.
2
In paragraph 7 (distress), after sub-paragraph (3) there shall be inserted the following sub-paragraph—
3A
The regulations may include provision that—
a
no person shall make a distress unless he is an officer of the authority concerned, or he is a person of a prescribed description and any prescribed conditions are fulfilled;
b
no person making a distress shall seize goods of a prescribed description.
3
In paragraph 8 (commitment to prison), in sub-paragraph (1)(a), for the words “it appears to the authority that no (or insufficient) goods of the debtor can be found" there shall be substituted the words “
the person making the distress reports to the authority that he was unable (for whatever reason) to find any or sufficient goods of the debtor
”
.
4
After paragraph 13 there shall be inserted the following paragraph—
13A Admissibility of evidence
1
Regulations under this Schedule may include provision that, in any proceedings before a magistrates’ court under any provision included by virtue of the preceding provisions of this Part of this Schedule—
a
a statement contained in a document of record shall be admissible as evidence of any fact stated in it of which direct oral evidence would be admissible; and
b
a certificate which is made with respect to a document of record produced by a computer and purports to be signed by a responsible person shall be admissible as evidence of anything which is stated in it to the best of his information and belief.
2
In this paragraph—
“document of record” means a document constituting or forming part of a record compiled by the authority concerned;
“responsible person” means a person occupying a responsible position in relation to the operation of the computer;
“statement” includes any representation of fact, whether made in words or otherwise.
5
In paragraph 15 (joint and several liability), in sub-paragraph (3), for the words “it appears to the authority concerned that no (or insufficient) goods of that person can be found" there shall be substituted the words “
the person making the distress reports to the authority that he was unable (for whatever reason) to find any or sufficient goods of the chargeable person
”
.