Councils appoint firms through procurement, contracts change hands on a four-year cycle, and some councils run two firms at once and split the caseload between them. A list published today can be wrong within a year.

So this page publishes what could actually be evidenced and says plainly where the evidence runs out. The powers do not change either way, because they come from statute and from the sheriff’s appointment rather than from the letterhead, as what powers sheriff officers have in Scotland sets out.

Seven mappings could be evidenced from a council’s own website or from a published contract award notice. Glasgow, Edinburgh, Fife, Highland and South Lanarkshire publish their firms; North Lanarkshire’s and Aberdeen City’s come from procurement records.

The seven, with the evidence for each

Five of the seven come from a council’s own website: Glasgow, Edinburgh, Fife, Highland and South Lanarkshire. North Lanarkshire’s and Aberdeen City’s come from published contract award notices.

Two things this table establishes

Scott & Co and Walker Love between them cover the two largest cities, and Scott & Co also covers Aberdeen City and Highland. A very large share of Scotland’s urban population is dealing with one of those two, which is why why Scott and Co are contacting you and why Walker Love are contacting you are the two most-read firm pages on this site.

Fife runs Stirling Park and Walker Love side by side. A Fife household can therefore get letters from two different firms about two different council debts, and that is normal rather than a scam, as how to contact Fife Council about council tax arrears explains.

The one to treat with caution

North Lanarkshire’s is the oldest entry and the least safe. The December 2021 award is the last published position, a retender closed on 11 November 2025, and no award notice has appeared since, so what to do about North Lanarkshire council tax arrears treats the firms as the last evidenced position rather than the current one.

Because the other 25 could not be evidenced, and guessing would be worse than admitting it. Five of them were opened and positively checked, and they publish a recovery process while deliberately naming no firm.

Five councils that publish the process and not the firm

• Aberdeenshire sets out a four-stage process ending in a summary warrant with a 10% addition, and refers to sheriff officers without naming one.
• West Lothian sets out reminders, loss of instalments, a summary warrant and the diligences that follow, and names no firm.
• Falkirk tells anyone receiving a sheriff officer letter to contact the sheriff officer to discuss it, without saying who that is.
• Dundee City publishes support and money advice routes but no recovery sequence and no firm.
• Scottish Borders says in its recovery policy that it will pass accounts to its debt management company, without naming the company.

Three pages that would not open

East Renfrewshire’s non-payment page returned an error, Inverclyde’s corporate debt policy chapter and performance reports are blocked to automated readers, and a freedom of information response about another council’s collectors was refused.

None of those is evidence that the council names no firm. A page that fails to load is not a page that is not there, and it is recorded here so nobody repeats the attempt.

The firms do not publish client lists either

Neither Walker Love nor Stirling Park publishes the local authorities it acts for, so the map cannot be built from that side. Walker Love describes itself as having service centres across Scotland and officers commissioned in all six sheriffdoms, and our sheriff officer advice section covers each firm.

The best single list is the national framework. Scotland Excel framework 1023, Debt recovery and sheriff officer services, runs from 20 December 2024 to 19 December 2028, and its Lot 1 names the firms operating in this market.

The firms named on Lot 1

Lot 2, Debt Recovery Services, has four: Alex M Adamson, Walker Love, Scott & Co and Stirling Park. The list comes from Scotland Excel’s own contract directory.

No total is given for Lot 1 here on purpose. The contract directory and the published award notice do not agree on the number, so the names are reproduced and the count is left out.

The four names most people have heard of

Scott & Co, Stirling Park, Walker Love and Alex M Adamson are the four that appear most often in council tax work, and each has a page here. Why Stirling Park are contacting you is the usual starting point.

The others on the framework are smaller or more regional, and Fraser Irvine and Malcolm J Boyd sit outside the four entirely. Seeing an unfamiliar name is not in itself a reason to worry.

No, and the two must not be run together. Scotland Excel says 13 of the 32 authorities have confirmed participation in the framework, it does not say which 13, and a council is free to procure its own contract outside it.

Three councils demonstrably went their own way

Edinburgh awarded its own two lots in December 2025. Aberdeen City awarded a single contract in January 2024, and North Lanarkshire ran its own two-lot procurement in 2021.

So membership of the framework tells you a firm operates in the Scottish market. It does not tell you that any particular council instructs it.

Why councils use more than one firm

A sheriff officer holds a commission for a particular sheriffdom, so a council covering a large area may need more than one firm to cover it. How Glasgow City Council recovers council tax arrears and how the City of Edinburgh Council deals with council tax debt set out how each of the two cities runs recovery.

Some councils split the work between two firms, as Fife and North Lanarkshire do.

North Lanarkshire went further and split by sheriff court, one firm for Hamilton and another for Airdrie. That is why two people in the same council area can hear from different firms.

No. A sheriff officer’s powers come from statute and from the sheriff’s appointment rather than from the firm, so the rules on what can be arrested, what is protected and what fees can be charged are the same whichever name is on the letter.

What the letterhead tells you, and what it does not

What actually determines what happens next

• Whether the debt is council tax under a summary warrant, or an ordinary debt under a court decree.
• Whether a charge for payment has been served, and whether the 14 days have expired.
• Whether an earnings arrestment, bank arrestment or attachment has already been executed.
• Whether you have a statutory moratorium or an approved Debt Payment Programme in place, and how much of the balance is addition and fees rather than tax. What fees sheriff officers can charge you covers that last one.

Fees are set by an Act of Sederunt and added to what you owe. The whole structure changes on 25 September 2026, when the 2026 Act of Sederunt revokes the 2002 instruments and moves to charging in units, so ask for a written breakdown rather than assuming a figure.

Look at the top of the letter, which carries the firm’s name, address and reference. If you no longer have it, phone the council’s council tax or revenues service and ask which firm holds the account.

What to ask the council

• Which firm currently holds the account, and the reference the firm is using.
• Which years or which debt the account covers.
• How much of the balance is the original debt, and how much is the 10% addition and fees.
• Whether a summary warrant has been granted, and when.
• Whether the council will consider an arrangement directly, or wants everything handled through the firm.

Get the answers in writing where you can. A written statement of the balance is a far better starting point than a phone conversation if you later need to challenge anything.

Councils differ on who you deal with after that

Glasgow tells a debtor to contact the firm directly once the account has passed over. That is the opposite of the usual advice, so ask rather than assume, and see how to reach the right council team about council tax arrears.

Be careful with lookalike letters

If a letter does not match the name the council gives you, check before paying anything. Payments should go to the firm or the council you have verified, using the reference they gave you.

No firm can force entry to your home for ordinary council tax arrears, attach money in the home, or take goods protected by the Debt Arrangement and Attachment (Scotland) Act 2002. None of them can have you imprisoned for council tax, because it is a civil debt in Scotland.

Ordinary attachment reaches very little

Ordinary attachment reaches goods outside a dwellinghouse. Nothing inside your home can be attached under it.

Clothing, beds and bedding, food, medical aids, a fridge, heating and lighting appliances, children’s toys, and the tools and books reasonably required for work or education are all protected. Which belongings are protected from sheriff officers lists them.

Money in the home cannot be attached at all, apart from a narrow exception for antique or collector’s coins. Forced entry needs an exceptional attachment order, which the sheriff may still refuse.

Who actually regulates them

Officers of court are regulated by the court, under Part V of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987, with an Advisory Council and with the sheriff principal holding the disciplinary powers. What body regulates sheriff officers in Scotland sets out the architecture.

The Scottish Civil Enforcement Commission is sometimes named as the regulator, and it never existed. The section that would have created it was repealed on 31 January 2011 without the body ever being established.

Complaining, and why the middle step matters

Complain to the firm first, then to the Society of Messengers-at-Arms and Sheriff Officers, which by statute must send details of the complaint to the Lord President and to the sheriff principal from whom the officer holds a commission.

So complaining to the society is not an alternative to reaching the sheriff principal, it is a route that reaches them by statute. How to complain about a sheriff officer’s conduct sets out the steps, and court information sits at the Scottish courts.