Chamber and committees

The Accountant in Bankruptcy maintains the Register of Insolvencies in Scotland and publishes statistics on personal insolvencies in Scotland, quarterly on their website at www.aib.gov.uk and by financial year in their annual report, which is also available on their website.

The Accountant in Bankruptcy considers debtor applications and assesses eligibility for bankruptcy. Debtor applications for bankruptcy are all considered via the same application process and applications are not specifically considered as low income, low assets applications.

The Debt Action Forum (DAF) was a group of stakeholders and academics invited by Scottish ministers to consider measures that might create a coherent debt package to respond to the current financial climate. Minutes of the DAF meetings are available on the Accountant in Bankruptcy website at www.aib.gov.uk.

The members are:

Fergus Ewing, MSP	Minister for Community Safety (Chair)
Gillian Thompson	Accountant in Bankruptcy
George Way	Law Society of Scotland
Ann Condick	The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland
Susan McPhee	Citizens Advice Scotland
Yvonne Gallacher	Money Advice Scotland
Lindsay Montgomery	Scottish Legal Aid Board
Anne Feeney	Confederation of Scottish Local Authorities
Adrian Stalker	QC
George Gretton	The Scottish Law Commission
Frank Johnstone	Finance and Leasing Association
Karen Titulaer	British Bankers Association / Committee of Scottish Clearing Bankers

 

There was no formal consultation on the Debt Arrangement Scheme (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2009 (SS1 2009/234). The Accountant in Bankruptcy did however run a series of workshops with stakeholders and met regularly with the money advice sector at various stages during the regulation making process.

Stakeholders included representatives from:

HM Revenue and Customs

Eversheds

Institute of Revenues Rating and Valuation

Lloyds TSB

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland

Money Advice Scotland

Citizens Advice Scotland

Glasgow City Council

South Lanarkshire Council

North Lanarkshire Council

Highland Council

Dumfries and Galloway Citizens Advice

Argyll and Bute Council

Fife Council

North Ayrshire Council

Accountant in Bankruptcy

 

It is not the Scottish Government''s role to determine on whether an authority has appropriately complied with its public sector equality duties. However, as the Scottish Government is engaged with community planning partnerships (CPPs) in the development of single outcome agreements (SOAs), it recognises its responsibility to work with partners to ensure that equality is properly considered and reflected.

To support this, in March 2009 the Scottish Government and COSLA issued advice on Equality and Single Outcome Agreements “ Getting to Best Practice. This advice is intended to help community planning partners to consider how they may move beyond fulfilling their individual equalities obligations and toward jointly incorporating and reflecting equality in the ongoing development of SOAs.

A review of the low income, low asset (LILA) route into bankruptcy published in October 2008 concluded that the application fee was reasonable and minimised the administration cost to the public purse. The report is available on the Accountant in Bankruptcy website at www.aib.gov.uk. The report also gave a commitment to consider the fee once evidence had been provided by the advice sector.

A further review of the LILA route into bankruptcy is currently underway and is due to report findings by August 2009. A decision on the application fee will be made based on the findings and any evidence provided by stakeholders.

A review of the low income, low asset (LILA) route into bankruptcy, published in October 2008, is available on the Accountant in Bankruptcy website at www.aib.gov.uk.

Based on a sample of 2,011 debtors who became bankrupt between 1 April 2008 and 31 July 2008, the report found that the average LILA debtor has around £17,288 of debt and the majority of debtors owe between £5,000 and £19,999.

A further review of the LILA route into bankruptcy is currently underway and is due to report findings by August 2009.

The trust deed process was discussed as part of the work of the Debt Action Forum (DAF). There has not been any policy decision to change trust deeds at this time. Work is ongoing with stakeholders to consider the whether changes are required to trust deeds.

The Accountant in Bankruptcy publishes their staffing and operational costs annually in their annual report which is available on their website at www.aib.gov.uk.

Based on the findings of a working group on debt relief and Citizen''s Advice Scotland figures, it was estimated that between 4,500 and 6,500 debtors who were stuck in the debt cycle and urgently requiring debt relief would apply for bankruptcy through low income, low assets (LILA) route.

The lowest hourly rate currently available in NHSScotland is £6.76 which is significantly above the current minimum wage of £5.73 per hour. From modelling data available centrally it is estimated that some 5,000 staff are on this rate.

It is unlikely that any pay point will be below £7 per hour from 1 April 2011.