Provisions of the Insolvency Act 1986 Applicable in Scotland

Accountant in Bankruptcy has published a fully up to date, referenced version of the Insolvency Act 1986, as it applies to Scotland, which is now available to view.

AiB's Policy Development branch recently undertook a review in order to provide an up-to-date version of the Act containing the provisions which are applicable under Scottish law. Personal insolvency legislation in Scotland is a devolved matter as laid out in the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 1985 and therefore does not fall under the jurisdiction of Westminster or UK law. On the other hand, many aspects of corporate insolvency law, cross over and are incorporated with UK legislation, as contained in the 1986 Act.

Due to the legislative complexities involved in aspects of bankruptcy and corporate insolvency in Scotland, some difficulties arising in using the 1986 Act as a primary reference source have been recognised:

• It is not immediately clear which provisions of the 1986 Act apply in Scotland, and which parts are entirely reserved for the rest of the UK; and
• The original legislation has been amended on a number of occasions by other primary legislation, for example the Enterprise Act 2002 and the Scotland Act 1998, yet not all available versions of the 1986 Act are updated to reflect these changes.

We have therefore published a fully up-to-date, referenced version of the 1986 Act as it applies to Scotland for the purposes of clarification.

NB. This document has no formal status and although every endeavour has been made to ensure the accuracy and currency of the information, AiB cannot be held responsible for or guarantee this.