Mr. Niall Cody:

We gather a lot of information and we get details from financial institutions. Issues such as short-term accommodation platforms and rental income have recently been in the public domain and we also get details of Government payments and suspicious transactions reports. There were 24,000 such reports from financial institutions on something they were unsure about, such as an unusual lodgement. We have a whole bank of information in our systems and we have it linked in and matched to the individual taxpayer. That will inform our debt management team of what might be the appropriate recommendation. We will then refer a debt to the sheriff.

As a result of the sheriff engaging with the taxpayer and where there are no assets or there is no engagement, some of the cases that have gone to the sheriff may be returned because there is not an appropriate method for the sheriff to follow up. That case could then go to one of the solicitors perhaps for a judgment mortgage on a property. Cases will be escalated to the appropriate intervention and then reviewed. In some of the figures not subject to any payment arrangement or enforcement action, it can be seen that they have gone back from enforcement action because nothing can be done. We then have to think about the necessary next step and sometimes that will be moving on to write-off.