Written statement to Parliament

Outstanding national non-domestic rates bill for 2012

The Foreign Secretary has updated Parliament on Diplomatic Missions and International Organisations with an outstanding National Non-Domestic Rates bill in 2012.

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government
The Rt Hon William Hague

The Foreign Secretary William Hague said:

The majority of diplomatic missions in the United Kingdom pay the National Non-Domestic Rates (NNDR) requested from them. Diplomatic missions are obliged to pay only 6% of the total NNDR value of their offices. This represents payment for specific services such as street cleaning and street lighting.

Representations by Protocol Directorate to missions in 2013 led to the settlement of outstanding debts by Kuwait, Namibia, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Slovak Republic, Zambia and Zimbabwe - amongst others.

As at 14 June 2013, the total amount of outstanding NNDR payments as advised by the Valuation Office Agency is £674,110, an increase of almost 20% from the 2011 figure (£566,009). £45,219 of this outstanding debt is owed by Iran and Syria which are not currently represented in the UK. We are therefore unable to pursue these debts. Six missions are responsible for almost two thirds of the remainder. We shall continue to urge those with NNDR debt to pay their dues.

Missions listed below owed over £10,000 in respect of NNDR.

Embassy of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire £97,987
Embassy of the People’s Republic of China £94,377
High Commission for the People’s Republic of Bangladesh £91,496
Sierra Leone High Commission £55,060
High Commission for the Republic of Cameroon £46,538
Embassy of the Republic of the Sudan £36,566
Embassy of Ukraine £22,941
Embassy of the Republic of Liberia £20,433
Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania £18,985
Embassy of the Republic of Zimbabwe £14,314
International Organisation for Migration £14,305
High Commission of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka £13,189
Embassy of the Republic of Albania £12,799
Embassy of Italy £12,299

Further information

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Published 11 July 2013