Does Sequestration Stop Sheriff Officers And Other Diligence?
For the debts caught by it, yes. An award of sequestration ends an earnings arrestment on the date of sequestration under section 72(2) of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987, and section 72(4) blocks a fresh one for any debt claimable in the sequestration.
Diligence is the Scottish word for enforcement. Different kinds of it are stopped by different provisions, and one of them is stopped by nothing at all until the award is made.
- Part of your pay is protected by law
- The deduction is set by statutory tables, not the creditor
- An arrestment can be stopped or replaced
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Still losing money each payday? Check what sequestration would stop and when.
Free, confidential and no obligation.That last point is the one almost nobody prints. A statutory moratorium and an award of sequestration do opposite things to a wage arrestment, and National Debtline’s diligence guide runs to thousands of words without setting the two against each other.
What follows separates them, then works through each kind of diligence in turn. How sequestration works covers the process itself.
Does an award of sequestration stop a wage arrestment?
Yes, and it happens by operation of law. Section 72(2) of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987 ends an existing earnings arrestment on the date of sequestration.
What the subsection actually reaches
An award of sequestration ends an earnings arrestment. Section 72(2) of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987 says an earnings arrestment, a current maintenance arrestment, a conjoined arrestment order or a deduction from earnings order ceases to have effect on the date of sequestration.
Section 72(4) then bars a fresh earnings arrestment for a debt that could be claimed in the sequestration.
The date that matters is not the date you apply
Section 72(5) ties the trigger to the date of sequestration as section 22(7) of the 2016 Act defines it. On a debtor application that is the date the award is made, so deductions carry on until then.
On a creditor petition the date falls earlier, when the sheriff granted warrant. How quickly a wage arrestment can be stopped deals with the practical timing.
Nothing in section 72(2) tells your employer
The subsection ends the arrestment and imposes no notification duty on anyone. A payroll department that has heard nothing will keep deducting.
So ask your adviser who is writing to your employer, and check the next payslip yourself. Money already taken from your wages explains why those deductions are not refunded.
Does a moratorium do the same thing before the award?
No. It does the opposite on this one point, and that is the single most misunderstood thing in Scottish debt enforcement.
What a moratorium stops
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.
What it expressly does not stop
A statutory moratorium is the exception. It does not stop an earnings arrestment that was already running: section 197(5)(d) of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016 lets a creditor carry on executing an earnings arrestment, a current maintenance arrestment or a conjoined arrestment order that came into effect before the moratorium began.
That permission sits in section 197(5) of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016, which lists the things that stay competent despite the general prohibition in section 197(3).
Two events, opposite effects on the same deduction
| The point | A statutory moratorium | An award of sequestration |
|---|---|---|
| When it happens | Before the application, from the day the entry goes on the register | On the date sequestration is awarded |
| An earnings arrestment already running | Carries on. Section 197(5)(d) permits it in terms | Ceases to have effect, under section 72(2) of the 1987 Act |
| A new earnings arrestment | Cannot be commenced or executed | Cannot be executed for a debt claimable in the sequestration, under section 72(4) |
| A charge for payment | Cannot be served | The underlying debt is claimed in the sequestration instead |
| A creditor petition for sequestration | Cannot be presented | Not applicable |
| How long it runs | Six months, since 1 October 2022 | The arrestment is over rather than paused |
The six months is recent, and pages updated in 2024 and 2025 still print the old six weeks. Whether a statutory moratorium stops a wage arrestment sets out the whole position.
Money coming out of your wages right now? Get free help
Free, confidential and no obligation.What happens to a bank arrestment and to goods already attached?
The creditor loses the advantage rather than the money coming back to you. Section 24 of the 2016 Act strips the preference and passes the arrested estate to your trustee.
The 60-day equalisation rule
No arrestment or attachment executed within the 60 days before the date of sequestration, or on or after it, is effectual to create a preference. Section 24(7) transfers the arrested estate to the trustee instead.
That is equalisation, not a refund. Funds taken out of a bank account go into the estate for the creditors as a body rather than back to your account.
Why section 24 is the wrong place to look for the wage arrestment answer
Section 24(9) takes earnings arrestments, current maintenance arrestments, conjoined arrestment orders and Child Support Act deductions out of those rules altogether. They are dealt with separately, by section 72 of the 1987 Act.
Any page that cites section 24 for the proposition that sequestration stops a wage arrestment is citing the one subsection that disclaims it.
Each kind of diligence, and what the award does to it
| The diligence | What an award does | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| An earnings arrestment already running | Ceases to have effect on the date of sequestration | Section 72(2), Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987 |
| A current maintenance arrestment | Ceases on the same date | Section 72(2) |
| A conjoined arrestment order | Ceases, though sums the employer had already paid to the sheriff clerk are still disbursed | Sections 72(2) and 72(3) |
| A Child Support Act deduction from earnings order | Ceases on the same date | Section 72(2), as amended |
| A fresh earnings arrestment afterwards | Not competent for a debt claimable in the sequestration | Section 72(4) |
| An arrestment of funds in your bank | Creates no preference where executed in the 60 days before the date of sequestration or after it, and the arrested estate goes to the trustee | Sections 24(6) and 24(7), 2016 Act |
| An attachment of goods | Operates in favour of the creditors generally, and one executed on or after the date of sequestration creates no preference | Sections 24(2)(d) and 24(6), 2016 Act |
Outside sequestration, a bank arrestment cannot touch the first £1,000 in a personal account. What a bank arrestment is explains that protected minimum balance and how it is applied.
Do sheriff officers have to stop chasing you after sequestration?
For the debts caught by it, largely yes, though the provision differs by diligence. An earnings arrestment ends outright and cannot be restarted, and an arrestment of funds or an attachment gives the creditor no preference and what it caught passes to your trustee.
Officers act on instructions, so ask which debt
Sheriff officers are not creditors. The question is always which debt is being enforced and whether it is claimable in your sequestration, and our sheriff officer advice pages cover how the firms operate.
Where the debt is caught, write to the officers and to the creditor with your case details and copy your trustee. Keep the letter short and factual.
They can check it themselves for nothing
The Register of Insolvencies is kept by the Accountant in Bankruptcy under section 200 of the 2016 Act, which requires it to be available for inspection and requires a certified copy of an entry to be provided to anyone who asks.
So verification takes a creditor about a minute. Whether your sequestration is public covers what the register shows about you.
If contact carries on anyway
Raise it with your trustee and with your money adviser rather than arguing it out yourself. The trustee has standing in the sequestration that you do not.
Which debts can still be enforced after sequestration?
The short list in section 145(3) of the 2016 Act, plus a student loan and the security behind any secured debt.
What survives, and what does not
Section 145(3) lists what survives. Fines and other court penalties, debts obtained by fraud, and aliment or a periodical allowance payable on divorce are not written off.
Student loans are not written off either, by a different route. Section 145(7) leaves the student loan regulations untouched rather than listing the debt as an exception.
| The debt | On discharge | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Credit cards, loans, catalogues, overdrafts | Discharged | Ordinary debts owed at the date of sequestration, section 145(1) |
| Council tax arrears owed at that date | Discharged | An ordinary debt like any other |
| Fines and other penalties due to the Crown | Not discharged | Section 145(3)(a) |
| A fine imposed in a justice of the peace court | Not discharged | Section 145(3)(b) |
| A compensation order | Not discharged | Section 145(3)(c) |
| A liability incurred by fraud or breach of trust | Not discharged | Section 145(3)(e) |
| Aliment, and a periodical allowance payable on divorce | Not discharged | Section 145(3)(f) |
| A student loan | Not discharged, by a different route | Section 145(7) leaves the student loan regulations untouched |
| A mortgage or other secured debt | The personal obligation goes, the security does not | Section 145(5) |
Because those debts are not discharged, the protection against enforcement is not the same for them. Which debts are not written off goes through each category.
New liabilities are outside it too
Rent, council tax and utility charges for the period after the award are current bills rather than bankruptcy debts. Citizens Advice Scotland lists the ordinary arrears that are included, and anything you take on afterwards is yours to pay.
What replaces the deduction once sequestration is awarded?
A debtor contribution order in most full administration cases, and an order fixed at zero in a Minimal Asset Process.
It is worked out differently from an arrestment
A debtor contribution order is set using the common financial tool, so it is calculated from what your budget shows you can afford rather than from what you owe.
An earnings arrestment works off fixed statutory tables and takes no account of what you spend. The contribution is assessed against your own budget instead.
Regulation 15(7) of the 2016 Regulations means no contribution is due where your income is solely social security benefits and tax credits. How a debtor contribution order is calculated sets out the method.
The order outlasts your discharge
It normally runs for 48 months, which is longer than the twelve months to discharge. The payments carry on after you are discharged.
That gap catches almost everybody. Whether discharge ends everything at twelve months explains what carries on.
Your employer only becomes involved if you stop paying
Under section 94 the trustee may instruct the person paying your income to deduct the contribution, and the power arises where you have failed to comply and have failed to pay for two payment intervals.
The payer may charge a fee equivalent to the employer’s fee for operating diligence against earnings and take it from the balance due to you. Until that point the contribution is something you pay yourself.
What should you do in the gap between applying and the award?
Plan for the deduction to continue, and ask your adviser about a moratorium for everything else. Those two things are not the same protection.
The order to work through it
| The step | What it does | The point to watch |
|---|---|---|
| Book free money advice | An approved money adviser is a statutory requirement for a debtor application, under section 4 | Do it first, not last |
| Ask about a statutory moratorium | Six months of protection against new diligence, from the day the entry is made | It will not stop a deduction already running |
| Expect the deduction to continue | Only the award ends an earnings arrestment | Budget for it until the date of the award |
| Check what is on the register | A moratorium notice is entered before any award is made | Section 200(2)(a) of the 2016 Act |
| Tell officers in writing once awarded | Quote the case details and copy your trustee | The register is free for them to check |
Money advice from an approved adviser is a statutory requirement before a debtor application in any event. How to apply for sequestration sets out the paperwork and the order it happens in.
Sequestration is not the only route to an arrestment
A protected trust deed ends one on the date of protection, and approval of a debt payment programme reaches an arrestment of your income. A trust deed and the Debt Arrangement Scheme are both worth putting on the table.
A Minimal Asset Process is a sequestration too, so section 72(2) applies to it in the same way. Whether a MAP stops an existing wage arrestment covers that route in full.
Frequently asked questions
How quickly does a wage arrestment stop after sequestration?
It ceases to have effect on the date of sequestration itself, under section 72(2) of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987. Payroll may take a little longer to act, and nothing in the subsection requires anyone to tell your employer.
Does applying for sequestration stop the deductions?
No, only the award does. A statutory moratorium taken while you prepare the application stops new diligence, and section 197(5)(d) expressly permits a creditor to carry on executing an earnings arrestment that was already running.
Will I get back money already taken from my wages?
No. Deductions made before the date of sequestration are credited against the debt rather than refunded, and sums a conjoined arrestment order had already put in the hands of the sheriff clerk are still disbursed.
Does sequestration stop a bank arrestment?
An arrestment executed within the 60 days before the date of sequestration, or after it, is ineffectual to create a preference and the arrested estate passes to your trustee under sections 24(6) and 24(7). The funds go into the estate rather than back to you.
Can a creditor start a new arrestment once I am sequestrated?
Not for a debt claimable in the sequestration. Section 72(4) of the 1987 Act makes a fresh earnings arrestment or conjoined arrestment order incompetent for those debts.
Can sheriff officers still enforce a court fine?
Fines, other penalties due to the Crown and compensation orders are not discharged under section 145(3), so they do not get the same protection as ordinary debts. Deal with fine enforcement separately and take advice on it.
Does a Minimal Asset Process stop diligence in the same way?
Yes. A Minimal Asset Process is a form of sequestration, so section 72(2) applies and an existing earnings arrestment ceases to have effect on the date of the award.
Does a debt management plan stop diligence instead?
No. An informal plan is not legally binding in Scotland, so an earnings arrestment, a bank arrestment or a charge for payment can all proceed while one is running.
Related guides
- Does MAP Bankruptcy Stop An Existing Wage Arrestment? The deduction ends on the date sequestration is awarded. What happens to money already taken, and whether a creditor can start again.
- Which Debts Are Not Written Off By Sequestration In Scotland? The short statutory list discharge never touches, where student loans and aliment sit, and what happens to a secured debt.
- How Is A Debtor Contribution Order Calculated In Sequestration? How the common financial tool sets your surplus, what spending can be allowed above the triggers, and what a payment break does.
- Does Discharge From Sequestration End Everything After 12 Months? What discharge releases, what keeps running afterwards, how the trustee's own discharge differs, and when yours can be delayed.
- How Does Sequestration Work In Scotland? The three routes in, who becomes your trustee, what you pay, what happens to the things you own, and what discharge does not clear.
- Can A Statutory Moratorium Stop A Wage Arrestment? The carve-out that lets an arrestment already running carry on regardless, what a moratorium does still stop, and what ends the deduction instead.
- What Is A Bank Arrestment In Scotland? How a creditor freezes a bank balance, the £1,000 protected minimum, and how a sheriff can order money released.
- How Quickly Can A Wage Arrestment Be Stopped? The date each route takes effect, how long each one takes to arrange, and how soon payroll stops deducting once one of them bites.
- What Happens To Money Already Taken When A Wage Arrestment Stops? Why deductions are credited against the debt rather than refunded, where the money actually went, and how to check the balance once it ends.
- What Does A Trustee In Sequestration Do? Who acts as your trustee, the section 50 duties, what happens to the things you own, and when the trustee's job finally ends.
Written as general information about Scottish debt law rather than regulated financial or legal advice, and your own circumstances may change the answer. Free, impartial help is available from Citizens Advice Scotland, StepChange, National Debtline and Advice Direct Scotland.