Below are both tables with their dates, the Column A and Column B rule that applies to the current one, what gets added on top and which provision charges it to you. The 10% added when the summary warrant was granted is a separate charge from your council, and it comes first.

An Act of Sederunt does, not the firm. The principal instrument dates from 2002 and carries the table in force now, and a replacement instrument takes over on 25 September 2026.

The instrument behind the figures in force now

The 2002 Act of Sederunt came into force on 30 December 2002 and still carries the schedule. The table inside it was substituted by the Act of Sederunt (Fees of Messengers-at-Arms and Sheriff Officers) (Amendment) 2024, in force 22 March 2024.

The instrument that takes over on 25 September 2026

The Act of Sederunt (Fees of Messengers-at-Arms and Sheriff Officers) 2026 was made on 17 June 2026 and comes into force on 25 September 2026. It revokes both 2002 instruments and the whole chain of orders that amended them.

It is a consolidation covering both sheriff officers and messengers-at-arms for the first time.

Why the firm cannot set its own rate

Sheriff officers are officers of the court, appointed by and accountable to the sheriff, and they are not bailiffs. The firms instructed by Scottish councils work under the Act of Sederunt (Messengers-at-Arms and Sheriff Officers Rules) 1991, and their professional body is the Society of Messengers-at-Arms and Sheriff Officers.

Service of a document, inhibitions, interdicts, attachments, auctions, ejections and a set of miscellaneous acts. Every row is something the officer does, and the two money columns give the rate that applies to it.

The rates in force since 22 March 2024

The rows below apply to work carried out up to and including 24 September 2026.

Why you cannot find an earnings arrestment on it

The table is organised by what the officer does rather than by which diligence it belongs to. On the ordinary reading, serving a charge for payment, an earnings arrestment schedule and a bank arrestment schedule all fall within service of a document, because no other row applies.

So serving a charge for payment on one person at one address is £96.27 in the ordinary case up to 24 September 2026.

The replacement table is organised the same way, so the same point holds after the change. Attachment is the exception under both, because it is itemised in its own right.

Column B is the residual default under general regulation 1C. Column A is the narrow exception, for low-value summary cause and simple procedure work.

What Column A covers

Column A applies to a summary cause where the value of the claim when the cause began was £1,500 or less, and to a simple procedure case with a money claim of £1,500 or less or no money claim at all. It also covers any summary cause commenced before 14 January 2008.

The threshold has sat at £1,500 since 2008 and it carries over into the new instrument unchanged.

Where council tax sits

Summary warrant work is not a summary cause, so the higher Column B rates apply in practice.

Column B is the residual column, covering sheriff court proceedings outside that exception.

The whole fee structure changes on 25 September 2026. The Act of Sederunt (Fees of Messengers-at-Arms and Sheriff Officers) 2026 revokes the 2002 instruments and charges in units instead of fixed sums.

How a charge is worked out from that date

Each act on the table carries a number of units instead of a sum of money. You multiply the units by the value of a unit on the day the work was done.

• From 25 September 2026, a unit is worth £6.10.
• From 1 April 2027, a unit is worth £6.22.
• From 1 April 2028, a unit is worth £6.35.

The instrument sets no unit value for any date after 1 April 2028. Photocopy charges stay in money and so do not move with the unit.

Which table applies to which piece of work

The test is the date the work was carried out. Work carried out up to and including 24 September 2026 is charged under the old table, and work carried out on or after 25 September 2026 is charged under the new one.

So ask which date each charge on your account relates to, and our guide to sheriff officer fees on a wage arrestment balance covers how those charges reach the sum being collected.

What happens to the lower Column A rates

The separate lower column goes, and a percentage reduction replaces it. The reduction is 20% and it applies to service, postal service, postal diligence and the first two inhibition items rather than across the whole table.

Under the new instrument the reduction for low-value work expressly does not reach summary warrant recovery, so council tax work is charged at the full rate. That was already the position in practice, and the 2026 instrument says it in terms rather than leaving it to be read out of the residual column.

Serving a document on one person at one address goes from £96.27 to £109.80. The charge for executing an attachment on a high appraised value falls a long way.

The steps a council tax debtor meets, side by side

The middle column is the ordinary Column B rate, except on the attachment rows, where the old table gives one figure whatever the column.

A charge for service of a document on the same day as instructed appears on the new table at 20 units, or £122.00 from 25 September 2026.

The attachment change, which runs your way

The percentage scales on attachment go, which cuts the charge sharply on a high appraised value.

An executed attachment above an appraised value of £2,845 is charged at 10% of that value on a sliding scale up to 24 September 2026, and at a flat 34 units after it.

Worked from the two tables, goods appraised at £10,000 carry a charge of £1,000 up to 24 September 2026 and £207.40 from 25 September 2026. Which belongings can be attached at all is a separate question, and ordinary attachment reaches only goods outside a dwelling.

The figure in the table is a starting point rather than a total. Additions include reasonable outlays and VAT on top of the fee, and a surcharge for work carried out outside normal business hours of 9.00am to 5.00pm.

The additions under each instrument

Until 24 September 2026 that is an uplift of a third for work between 5.00pm and 10.00pm on a weekday and three quarters for work after 10.00pm, before 9.00am, or at any time on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday. From 25 September 2026 a new instrument sets the surcharges, so ask the firm which rate has been applied and to which date.

Treat it as a partial list rather than a closed one, and ask for every addition to be itemised.

Time, and what a unit of time is

The old table charges time in units without saying how long a unit is. From 25 September 2026 the interval is defined as six minutes.

For several of the enforcement items, time charging under the new instrument runs from the end of the first hour at the place of execution. Ask how many units have been charged and against which item.

For an earnings arrestment, the expenses of the charge and of serving the schedule come out of what is taken from your wages and cannot be pursued separately, under section 93(1) of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987. For a bank arrestment, section 93(2) takes them out of the arrested funds instead.

Where each diligence recovers them

Section 93(1) of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987 covers the expenses of serving an earnings arrestment schedule, including any charge served before it. Those expenses are recoverable by the diligence concerned and not by any other legal process.

Section 93(2) works differently, taking the expenses of a bank arrestment out of the arrested funds instead. Section 40 of the Debt Arrangement and Attachment (Scotland) Act 2002 covers an attachment.

The part of the balance that is not a fee at all

A 10% statutory addition goes on the outstanding council tax under the Local Government Finance Act 1992 when the summary warrant is granted. That comes from your council rather than from the officers, and how the 10% works covers it.

Our guide to why a wage arrestment is taking more than you expected takes a balance apart line by line, and the protected earnings limits give the figures payroll should be working from.

You can raise it, and the place to start is an itemised breakdown of every charge on the account. Ask which act on the table of fees each one relates to, and on what date the work was carried out.

What to ask for in writing

• Every charge added to the account, with the date the work was carried out.
• The act on the table of fees that each charge relates to.
• Whether the charge falls under the table in force to 24 September 2026 or the one that replaces it.
• The balance before the 10% addition, and the date the summary warrant was granted.

Keep a copy of what you send. Why a sheriff officer firm is contacting you covers who to write to and what the firm is instructed to do.

How to stop more fees being added

Each further act carries its own fee, so the way to cap them is to displace the enforcement rather than argue the arithmetic. A deduction from your wages cannot be reduced, but the diligence behind it can be ended.

A Debt Payment Programme under the Debt Arrangement Scheme freezes interest, fees and charges, which are written off on completion. A special payment arrangement with the council is worth asking about as well, because the council is still the creditor.

Official guidance on debt and diligence in Scotland sets out the formal routes.