Where the debt is council tax, there may be nothing on the file at all, and whether council tax arrears show on a credit report covers that on its own.

Below is what is recorded, how long each entry lasts, and which Scottish register is not a credit file at all.

No. An earnings arrestment is an enforcement step under the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987, and it is not one of the things credit reference agencies hold.

Why the arrestment sits outside the file

No source records an earnings arrestment reaching a credit reference agency. What the sources do set out is how long the entries that are recorded last.

It takes effect when the schedule is served on your employer, under section 47(2) of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987, and runs until the debt is paid or extinguished, the employment ends, or it is recalled or abandoned.

Your employer does not report it

Payroll operates the deduction and shows it on your payslip. Only payroll and whoever processes the paperwork need to know about it.

The employer has to operate the arrestment, and refusing makes the employer liable for the sums it should have deducted. That duty runs to the creditor rather than to any credit reference agency.

Each entry runs on its own clock. A default runs six years from the date of default, a decree six years from the date of judgment, and sequestration six years from the date it begins.

How long the main entries last

The periods below come from the Information Commissioner’s Office, Registry Trust and the Accountant in Bankruptcy. They are retention periods rather than a promise about how any lender will read them.

The Debt Arrangement Scheme (Scotland) Regulations 2011 prescribe no retention period for the DAS Register, so this page does not give one.

Credit reference agencies take data from the DAS Register, and Citizens Advice Scotland says a credit rating is affected for as long as the programme runs.

No source sets out how long an entry lasts after completion, so ask the agency.

For an ordinary consumer debt it is the default, and sometimes a court decree. A default runs six years from the date of default and a decree six years from the date of judgment.

A default runs from the date of default

A default is held for six years from the date of default, on the Information Commissioner’s Office position. A wrong date is raised with the agency and with the lender that supplied it.

A decree runs from the date of judgment

A court decree for a consumer debt is held on a credit file for six years from the date of judgment.

That is why an ordinary creditor has to raise a court action first, and why a council tax summary warrant behaves differently.

Why the date on an entry matters

Most consumer debts in Scotland fall under the five-year short negative prescription in section 6 of the Prescription and Limitation (Scotland) Act 1973. Council tax does not.

Council tax is expressly excluded by Schedule 1, paragraph 2(fd) of that Act and falls under the twenty-year long negative prescription in section 7 instead. Our guide to when council tax debt becomes statute barred sets that out.

They are two separate records with two different keepers. The Register of Decrees is a public register of Scottish court decrees, and a credit report is a file held by a credit reference agency.

The two entries do not come off on the same terms

An entry in the Register of Decrees runs for six years unless the decree is set aside or cancelled. The credit reference agency entry for a decree runs six years from the date of judgment.

That difference is the point. One is measured from the judgment date, and the other can be removed early by getting the decree itself dealt with.

So the same decree can produce two entries running on two clocks. Check which of the two records you are looking at before you count the six years.

Which one you go to depends on what you want changed

Recalling or setting aside a decree is a court question. Correcting a credit file entry is a question for the agency and the lender that supplied the data.

Official guidance on debt and decrees in Scotland sits on mygov.scot, and the courts side is on the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service site.

A summary warrant is not a decree obtained after a hearing

A summary warrant is granted by the sheriff court on the council’s application, supported by a certificate, with no hearing and no chance to contest liability at that point.

It does not appear on a credit file, and council tax is not reported to credit reference agencies at all. What a summary warrant is sets out how it is granted.

Some are recorded, on public registers rather than through a lender. A Debt Payment Programme goes on the DAS Register, and a protected trust deed or sequestration on the Register of Insolvencies.

The Debt Arrangement Scheme

The Debt Arrangement Scheme is a statutory programme run by the Accountant in Bankruptcy through the DAS Administrator, with interest, fees and charges frozen and written off on completion.

Once a programme is approved an existing earnings arrestment stops and creditors cannot start new diligence. Our guide to what the Debt Arrangement Scheme is sets out the rest before you weigh the register entry against it.

Trust deeds and sequestration

A protected trust deed and sequestration are both recorded on the Register of Insolvencies, which the Accountant in Bankruptcy maintains.

Each takes effect on a fixed date under the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016 rather than on the day you sign. Money already taken is credited against the debt and is not usually refunded, so check the position with the creditor.

The Minimal Asset Process counts as a form of sequestration and is recorded in the same way. Its automatic discharge comes after six months, against the usual twelve for a full administration.

The statutory moratorium

A statutory moratorium gives six months of protection and you get one per rolling 12 months. It stops service of a charge for payment, stops new diligence and stops creditor petitions for sequestration.

It does not stop a creditor obtaining a decree, and interest and charges keep accruing throughout.

Where each of them lands

The table below sorts the whole area by where each thing is recorded. Some are invisible to a credit check, some are reported, and some sit on a public register instead.

Not through the credit file. An earnings arrestment is not recorded there, so a credit check has nothing to find.

There is nothing on the credit file to find, because the arrestment is not recorded there. What a lender or letting agent asks for beyond a credit check varies, and no official source sets out lending or referencing criteria, so ask the firm you are applying to.

Defaults and decrees already on the file are the credit-side question. Nobody can promise you a decision either way.

How much the deduction takes

The tables have been in force since 6 April 2025 under the Diligence against Earnings (Variation) (Scotland) Regulations 2024, and they apply to net earnings rather than to gross pay.

Monthly net pay of £1,800.00 produces £172.50 and £2,200.00 produces £252.50, while £750.00 or less in the month produces nothing. How much they can take from your wages carries the bands.

What actually changes the picture

The arithmetic in the tables is fixed, and there is no affordability or hardship ground for cutting a deduction down.

Sequestration ends an existing earnings arrestment on the date of sequestration under section 72(2) of the 1987 Act, and a protected trust deed bites on the date of protection under section 173 of the 2016 Act. Neither turns on the day you sign anything.

What changes it is displacing the arrestment altogether, through the Debt Arrangement Scheme or another statutory route, and getting the rest of your bills into the right order. Which bills are priority debts in Scotland is the place to start on that.

Work on the entries that are actually recorded. Check your file with each of the three agencies and raise anything that looks wrong.

Check all three agencies

Experian, Equifax and TransUnion each hold their own file. Checking one is not the same as checking all three.

Correct errors at source

Raise anything that looks wrong with the agency and with the lender that supplied it.

Dates carry weight here, because the five-year prescription clock for a consumer debt turns on when a relevant claim, payment or written acknowledgement last happened.

What is worth doing

Check your file with each of the three agencies, raise anything that looks wrong with the agency and with the lender that supplied it, and deal with the arrears themselves.

Free help is available from Citizens Advice Scotland, StepChange, Money Advice Scotland and National Debtline, and the Accountant in Bankruptcy publishes the official position on the statutory routes.