Welcome to the second edition of our e-bulletin. Please take time to read the bulletin and to bring it to the attention of relevant individuals within your organisation.

We would appreciate your feedback so that we may gauge the bulletin's effectiveness and incorporate improvements in future editions. If there are specific subjects that you would like us to cover, then please let us know.

We hope that the guidance provided will prove to be a valuable reference tool.

John Cook

Head of Case Operations

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Agent and Trustee News

The accounts team have recently been inundated with requests for extensions to account periods and Agents and Trustees should note the limitations of this provision detailed in Section 52 of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 1985 prior to making such requests.

Trustees should note that neither the Interim or First Permanent account period can be varied and that requests for extensions to subsequent accounting periods (B2's) must be received by the Accountant in Bankruptcy prior to the account end date.

Subsequent account periods can be accelerated if required even if a previous request for an extension has been approved, however, we would ask that when you request the acceleration of an account period you provide details of when you expect the next account period to close to allow our records to be updated.

Trustees should set diary reminders to ensure that statutory dates are adhered to.

Agents should note that the Accountant's letter of 20 May 2003 advised that following the reduction in accounting periods, requests for extensions to these account periods (B2's) were not required, however B2's received recently have included requests to extend account periods which ended in 2003 and other prior periods . Agents who wish to extend outstanding account periods should notify the date the account is expected to end on the case review forms recently provided by the Supervision team.

There should only be a first and final account unless a scheme or schemes of division are appropriate in which case there will be additional accounts. If the account period requires extending, a B2 will need to be submitted prior to the end date of that account.

Please note that from the publication date of this newsletter (3 November 2008) only approved extensions to account periods will be acknowledged.

If you would like to discuss any of the issues raised please contact Val Cavin.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Agent News

During the period 8 July 2008 to 1 September 2008 the Supervision Team wrote to all Agents with lists of cases which:

• were over 3 years old or
• had outstanding accounts or
• had outstanding Sederunt Books

Agents were asked to complete a case review form in respect of the named cases and to date responses have been received for 50% of the cases detailed. Further letters have been issued requesting return of the outstanding forms within fourteen days. The team will be in contact in the near future to make arrangements for the submission of overdue accounts and sederunt books. Accounts and sederunt books should continue to be submitted as they become due.

We have been advised that some sederunt books have been submitted in an unacceptable format and would remind you that a letter was issued on the 29 February 2008 detailing the acceptable format. For ease of reference the guidance is reproduced here:

• Correspondence files and sederunt books should be separately bound and clearly marked with the debtor's name, case reference and file description.
• Files should have the documents punched and securely filed, elastic bands, metal or paper clips are not appropriate.
• Creditor claim forms should be filed in the correspondence file.
• Documents should be filed in the order detailed on the document checklist.
• Documents should be filed in a suitable folder, a piece of card on the front and back of documents is unacceptable.
• Signed Appendix D1 must be submitted with the files.
• All statutory documents must be accounted for.

If you have any queries regarding either the review of outstanding cases or sederunt book format/submission please contact Elizabeth Muirhead.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Guest Articles

The Bankruptcy Restrictions Team (BRT) was set up in April 2008 to deal with the new provisions set out in sections 56A to 56J of the Act in respect of submissions made to AiB regarding inappropriate conduct by debtors after the 1st April 2008. A list of 13 grounds considered inappropriate is narrated in section 56B of the Act.

We are currently investigating a number of cases submitted by our in house case officers, but to date we have not received any submissions from our agents. In this regard we would remind agents that in terms of duty 5A there is a responsibility, where there is reason to believe that an investigation is required into the conduct of a debtor, to submit a report to AiB using the template provided at Appendix K to the Notes for Guidance.

The report normally takes no more than 15 to 30 minutes to complete and once submitted, all investigation work and any applications to the Court will be undertaken by the BRT. You will be provided with regular updates with regards to the progress of any investigation and advised of any Bankruptcy Restriction Orders (BRO) / Bankruptcy Restriction Undertakings (BRU) imposed on or agreed by the debtor, which can vary in length between 2 and 15 years, depending upon the severity of the misconduct. The details of any orders imposed or undertakings agreed will be recorded on the Register of Insolvencies (ROI), and individual press releases will also be considered for the more serious cases of misconduct.

Examples of some of the misconduct which is currently being investigated are as follows: -

1. A debtor who withdrew £5,000 in cash from a savings account, which she had failed to mention in her application, shortly before lodging a LILA application with AiB.

2. Gambling online before and after the date of sequestration

3. Failing to declare the ownership of heritable property in a LILA application

4. Obtaining credit in excess of permitted limit after date of sequestration

Should you or your staff wish to discuss any potential submissions on an informal basis or require any assistance with the completion of the report template please contact Derek Smillie or Gillian Boyd.

Action for Division and Sale

Before requesting legal service with regard to division and sale action, would Agents please ensure that this office holds a recent valuation and current redemption figure from the secured lender and any other pertinent information, for example, whether the property is jointly owned. This will allow us to make an informed decision without reverting to you.

Your proposals

As per The Accountant's letter to you dated 15 April 2004, in all cases that are referred to us for advice, we are looking for your proposals on how to proceed, and all relevant documents to support your proposed course of action. In many recent cases, we have been asked 'what should we do now?' with no course of action being proposed or recommended. This is not acceptable and such enquiries will be referred back to the Agent for more information.

If you have any queries on the above please contact Diane Dunn.

As you are aware we are re-tendering the Agency's contract for Insolvency Services. The current contract has served us well but is now out of date and exposes the Agency to potential challenge under procurement regulations.

The date for completion of the Pre Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) expired on 31 October and these are now being scored. Significant progress has been made in drafting the Terms and Conditions for the new contract and we plan to run 3 events during week commencing 1 December to help those successful in the PQQ stage to submit a tender.

We are also developing a strategy to work with our current suppliers who have decided not to be part of the new contract or are unsuccessful following pqq.

If you have any queries on the above please contact the COIS Project Team

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I hope our e-newsletter has been both informative and useful to you.

Remember, if you would like anyone else from your organisation to be included in our mailing list please let us know. We would also greatly welcome feedback and ideas for future topics. You can do both by clicking on the AiB link on the right.

Look out for our newsletter next quarter!

Best Wishes

AiB Accounts Team

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you do not wish to receive details of further e-newsletters, please contact us via our enquiry form including 'remove' in the first line of the enquiry field.

The Accountant's Information Bulletin is produced by the Accounts and Supervision Teams, Case Operation Branch, AiB, for the benefit of agents and trustees working with the Agency. All information presented here was true and accurate at the time of publication.