Barclay Implementation Advisory Group: final report

Meetings

The Advisory Group met on six occasions between January and September 2018. At the first meeting the Group agreed to establish two sub-groups to consider issues associated with Billing and Appeals. The Appeals sub-group has met seven times and the Billing sub-group has met three times and they will continue to meet ahead of the Bill being introduced.

Minutes of all the meetings are available at /groups/barclay-implementation-advisory-group/.

The early meetings of the main group focussed primarily on the recommendations requiring primary legislation and led to the Group endorsing the consultation paper^[3] which was launched on 25 June 2018.

At the meeting on 20 June 2018, representatives from the Department of Finance within the Northern Ireland 'Land and Property Services' attended to deliver a presentation on the way that non-domestic rates (and council tax) information has been incorporated into the Spatial NI Geographic Information System. Further information on the system is available at https://www.finance-ni.gov.uk/topics/property-valuation/valuation-lists.

While all members of the Group broadly shared the Barclay Review ambition to make the rates system more accessible, ratepayer representatives frequently highlighted the importance of direct and explicit buy-in from each of Scotland's local authorities and expressed concerns that that may not be the case due to contractual, organisational and resource challenges.

The publication of this report marks the culmination of the first stage of the Implementation Advisory Group. The current intention is that the Group will continue to convene at key stages to monitor implementation progress and evaluate the effectiveness of the Barclay reforms.