Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what comparative assessment he has made of the average (a) cost to the public purse of a prison sentence and (b) amount of debt outstanding in cases where people have been sent to prison for council tax non-payment in each year between 2010 and 2017.

The Government has not undertaken any such comparative assessments. Magistrates’ courts should consider imprisonment for non-payment of council tax only if the failure to pay is due to the individual's wilful refusal or culpable neglect. Local council tax support schemes are available to those householders on low incomes who have difficulty in paying their council tax.