Those are two different things measured from two different events. Both are statements of practice, and neither is a rule anybody could enforce.

What follows is what the register is, what it holds, what each source says, and why the answer that matters to most readers is a different one. How a MAP works covers the process behind the entry.

A public record kept by the Accountant in Bankruptcy. Section 200(1)(c) requires it to be maintained, and section 200(7) requires it to be available for inspection at all reasonable times.

Anyone may look, and anyone may get a copy

Section 200(7)(b) also requires the Accountant in Bankruptcy to provide any person, on request, with a certified copy of an entry. There is no test of interest written into either limb.

The free public search and the paid data feed used by credit reference agencies are both ways of doing what section 200(7) requires. They are not separate legal rules.

What the register contains

The entry that catches people early

Section 200(2)(a) covers people who are the subject of a notice of intention to apply for a statutory moratorium. So you can be on the register before any bankruptcy is awarded, and whether a moratorium stops a wage arrestment covers what one does and does not do.

Nobody has published a figure you can rely on. Section 200 and regulation 30 have been read in full and neither says how long anything stays.

The published statements, side by side

Why the two do not reconcile

mygov.scot measures from the date of bankruptcy, which is a fixed point. The Accountant in Bankruptcy’s debtor guide measures from the trustee’s discharge, which is an event whose timing varies.

Nobody has published how the two relate, and this project could not reconcile them. Treat each as what its own publisher says and neither as a rule.

One more sign that the formula is practice rather than law

The formula at Notes for Guidance 17.3 keeps information until the longer of one year after the trustee’s discharge, one year after a recall, or one year after a bankruptcy restrictions undertaking or order ends.

There is no such thing as a bankruptcy restrictions undertaking in Scotland. The 2016 Act provides for orders and interim orders only, and undertakings belong to the law of England and Wales.

A retention rule that still refers to an instrument abolished with the old Act is an internal practice note, not a statutory period. Treat it as what it is.

More than most people expect. The Accountant in Bankruptcy’s own list of the information it holds includes your home address, date of birth and occupation.

The fields that matter to a reader

• Your first name, surname, any other names and any alias.
• Your home address, and a former address.
• Your date of birth and your occupation.
• Whether sequestration was awarded under the Minimal Asset Process, and your discharge date.
• The level of debt and the level of assets shown in the statement of affairs at the date of bankruptcy.

That list is AiB’s account of its own register

The prescribed form of the register sits in a schedule to the 2016 Regulations. What is set out above is how the Accountant in Bankruptcy describes what it publishes.

That document runs to nine headings and, tellingly, contains no removal rule at all. Whether a sequestration is public covers the same register for the longer bankruptcy route.

In one narrow situation. Regulation 30(2) lets the Accountant in Bankruptcy leave information out where including it would be likely to put a person at risk of violence, or otherwise jeopardise anyone’s safety or welfare.

Where the power comes from

Section 200(8) is the enabling provision, and regulation 30(2) is what was made under it. Both are framed around safety rather than around privacy.

Embarrassment is not the test. Risk to a person is.

What the power does not cover

There is no general right to be left off because a bankruptcy is private or awkward. The register exists to be public and the exception is drawn narrowly.

Raise it before the application goes in

The request belongs with the debtor application rather than after the award. Tell your money adviser at the first meeting if it applies to you.

An adviser has to be involved in any event. Only an approved money adviser can grant the certificate for sequestration the application needs.

Yes, and it is the only thing that materially does. Section 159(2) sets an order made by the Accountant in Bankruptcy at between two and five years, and one made by the sheriff at between five and fifteen.

The window for making one is short in a MAP

Section 158(1) requires the order to be made, or applied for, between the date of sequestration and the date your discharge becomes effective. In a MAP that is six months.

After that the Accountant in Bankruptcy needs the sheriff’s permission under section 158(3). So a restrictions order in a MAP is normally a six-month-window event.

The grounds, in the Act’s own words

The grounds include carrying on any gambling, speculation or extravagance that may have materially contributed to the sequestration.

Section 155 requires the Accountant in Bankruptcy to notify you before making one and to take your representations into account, and section 159(3) lets you apply to have an order revoked or varied.

The credit restrictions are not automatic

The credit restrictions are not automatic. Section 157(1) lets the decision maker specify that they apply, which means some orders carry them and some do not.

The Accountant in Bankruptcy says its own team requests them on all occasions, which is practice rather than the statute, and whether you can get credit during a MAP sets out the duties that apply anyway.

Because it is a different record kept by different organisations. mygov.scot says bankruptcy can stay on a credit file for at least six years, which is industry practice rather than a statutory period.

Neither period sets the other

The register empties on the Accountant in Bankruptcy’s timetable. The credit reference agencies keep insolvency data on their own retention schedules, which are not identical to each other.

No statute, statutory instrument or regulator’s rule sets six years for credit file data. How long a MAP stays on your credit file goes through what the agencies actually publish.

The three periods, lined up

If you are planning around a MAP, plan around the credit file rather than the register. National Debtline is one of the few pages that states the register rule correctly.

By itself, nothing. It does not deduct money or stop you working, and its practical effect is disclosure, because anyone may search it.

The restrictions come from the statute, not the register

You are discharged automatically six months after the award under section 140, and section 146 then applies disclosure conditions for a further six months.

For six months from the date of discharge you must tell anyone providing you with credit that you are required to comply with the section 146 conditions, before obtaining credit of £2,000 or more, or any amount at all while you owe £1,000 or more.

Section 146 came into force on 30 November 2016 and carries no textual amendment, so the £2,000 and £1,000 figures are the ones that operate.

A first failure to comply extends the restriction period from six months to twelve. The offence arises only on a further failure during that extended period.

What a lender sees, and when

Credit reference agencies buy the register data feed, which is how a bankruptcy reaches a credit file at all. The two records then run to different timetables.

Work and directorships

Acting as a company director, or taking part in promoting, forming or managing one, is a criminal offence for an undischarged bankrupt without the leave of the court, under section 11 of the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986.

The list of roles genuinely closed by a bankruptcy is shorter than most pages suggest, and whether a MAP affects your job gives each bar with the statute behind it.

And what it does to a deduction from your wages

The award ends an existing earnings arrestment on the date of sequestration, under section 72(2) of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987. Whether a MAP stops an existing wage arrestment covers the timing, and how long a MAP lasts sets out the rest of the timetable.