Bankruptcy awards were down 6.5% on the same period a year ago with 1,236 awarded for the first quarter of 2018-19, covering the period from 1 April to 30 June 2018. This figure is below the 1,322 awarded in the same quarter for 2017-18.

There was a marked increase in protected trust deeds (PTDs), with 1,972 PTDs protected in the first quarter of 2018-19, up from 1,547 in the same quarter last year.

The Scottish government’s new Debt Arrangement Scheme (DAS), which allows people to take control of their finances and repay their debts without facing insolvency or further action being taken against them, also showed a rise of 8.5% compared to the same quarter a year ago.
There were 648 debt payment programmes approved under DAS in the first quarter of 2018-19, compared with 597 in the same quarter for 2017-18. A total of £9.5m was repaid through the scheme in the quarter, similar to the £9.4n the previous year.

Richard Dennis, AiB chief executive, said: ‘While the number of individuals entering insolvency continues to be very much lower than 10 years ago, these figures clearly illustrate personal insolvencies remain on an upward trend from the first quarter of 2015-16.’
The number of Scottish corporate insolvencies rose during the quarter to 245, compared with the 200 recorded from the same period a year ago. This number was composed of three receiverships, 145 compulsory liquidations and 97 creditors’ voluntary liquidations.
Nevertheless, the 245 recorded during the first quarter of 2018-19 is down on the 259 reported in the previous quarter, Q4 of 2017-18.

Scotland’s insolvency statistics for Q1 2018 are here

Report by Pat Sweet