Explanatory note

These Regulations, which are made under Parts I and II of the Local Government Finance Act 1988, deal with miscellaneous matters concerning community charges.

Regulations 2 to 6 make miscellaneous amendments to the Community Charges (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1989, made necessary in part by amendments made to the Local Government Finance Act 1988 by the Local Government and Housing Act 1989. Amongst other matters, they require the names of bodies corporate, as well as individuals, to appear on the extracts of community charges registers to be kept for public inspection (regulation 2), enable charging authorities to offer discounts where community charge instalment payments are made in a single lump sum or otherwise than in cash (regulation 3), permit a liability order to be made in respect of costs alone where the amount outstanding in respect of community charge is paid after a liability order has been applied for, enable enquiries to be pursued once a liability order has been made as to whether another person may be jointly and severally liable as spouse or manager, provide that where one person jointly and severally liable with another is committed to prison upon a default in payment, no further steps can be taken against the other in respect of it (regulations 4 and 5) and simplify the provisions relating to standard community charge multipliers, at the same time as extending the cases where charging authorities must set a multiplier of 0 (regulation 6).

Regulation 7 clarifies the definition of “full-time course of education” in regulation 2(1) of the Personal Community Charge (Students) Regulations 1989.

Regulation 8 amends the provisions of the 1988 Act dealing with the collection of amounts due from co-owners in consequence of the provision dealing with discounts mentioned above.