One word separates the two systems more sharply than anything else, and it sits in the discharge provisions. English law says a bankrupt is discharged, and Scots law says the Accountant in Bankruptcy may discharge.

That is the difference nobody writing about this draws, and it is where this page starts. How sequestration works covers the Scottish process on its own terms.

Yes and no. It is the Scottish name for personal bankruptcy, and it is governed by an entirely separate Act with its own thresholds, its own decision maker and its own timetable.

The two systems side by side

The creditor threshold happens to match at £5,000. In Scotland it comes from section 7(1) and has applied since 1 October 2022, and in England and Wales it is the bankruptcy level in section 267(4) of the Insolvency Act 1986.

The English figure is older than most people assume

£750 was replaced by £5,000 in SI 2015/922, in force 1 October 2015, and article 3 confines it to petitions presented on or after that date.

Scotland’s own threshold moved much later. Whether a creditor can make you bankrupt sets out the Scottish rules and the four-month apparent insolvency test that goes with them.

An administrative body on both sides of the border, and neither is a judge. The Accountant in Bankruptcy awards a Scottish sequestration on a debtor application, and an adjudicator at the Insolvency Service makes an English bankruptcy order.

The English route

Section 263K(1) sets four requirements the adjudicator must be satisfied of, and the substantive one is that the debtor is unable to pay their debts at the date of the determination.

gov.uk’s own page puts it in a sentence: someone who works for the Insolvency Service checks whether your application meets the requirements for bankruptcy. You can only apply online.

The Scottish route

There is no Official Receiver in Scotland. What a trustee in sequestration does covers the role, which the Accountant in Bankruptcy fills unless a qualified insolvency practitioner is appointed, and always fills in a Minimal Asset Process.

gov.uk describes the English equivalent differently again. Its guide to bankruptcy says an official receiver works for the Insolvency Service and is attached to the court, and will also be your trustee unless an insolvency practitioner is appointed.

Money advice is compulsory in Scotland

You cannot make a Scottish debtor application without first taking advice from a money adviser. How to apply for sequestration sets out what that involves and who can give it.

£150 in Scotland and £680 in England and Wales. gov.uk gives the English figure as a single amount, and the Scottish fee has two exemptions attached to it.

The Scottish position

The application fee is £150, and it is not payable if you receive certain prescribed benefits or the common financial tool shows you have no surplus income.

These are exemptions that operate where the condition is met, rather than a discretionary waiver anyone has to apply for. The distinction matters if you have been told to ask for a favour.

There is no Minimal Asset Process fee at all. It was removed on 6 February 2023 by SSI 2023/9, and what sequestration costs in Scotland goes through the whole figure.

Why the English fee reaches Scottish readers

English pages dominate search results for bankruptcy, and £680 is the number they carry. gov.uk’s guide to bankruptcy says it plainly, and it says nothing about Scotland because it is not about Scotland.

A Scottish reader who takes that figure at face value can conclude bankruptcy is out of reach. It is a difference of £530, or of the whole fee where an exemption applies.

Neither figure is the real cost of either process. What the case takes out of your income afterwards is the number that decides whether you can live with it.

No, and that is the single biggest difference between the two systems. Section 279(1) of the Insolvency Act 1986 says a bankrupt is discharged at the end of one year, while the Scottish provisions say the Accountant in Bankruptcy may discharge.

One word, four tables of consequences

English discharge is automatic after twelve months. Scottish discharge from a full administration sequestration is a decision that can be made after twelve months, which is not the same thing.

Sections 137(2) and 138(2) are in identical terms, and the difference between them is whether a private trustee or the Accountant in Bankruptcy is running the case.

The sections around them are not identical, though. Section 138(3) requires the Accountant in Bankruptcy to decide as soon as practicable after the twelve-month date, and section 138(6) requires it to revisit a refusal after twelve months.

The Scottish exception

A Minimal Asset Process discharges automatically. Section 140(1) says the debtor is discharged six months after the award, and there is nothing to apply for.

Even then it is not the end of the case. What discharge actually ends covers the contribution order, the trustee’s work and the debts that survive it.

What the ranking pages say

The best-placed commercial page on this question tells a Scottish reader they are discharged after one year, as though it happened by the passage of time. It does not, and how long a sequestration lasts is a longer answer than any anniversary.

No. A Minimal Asset Process is a sequestration, with an award of bankruptcy and everything that follows from one, while a Debt Relief Order is a separate procedure that is not bankruptcy.

Different limits, different administrators

A Debt Relief Order is the England and Wales route and its limits are different. Debts up to £50,000 under SI 2024/626, in force 28 June 2024, and a vehicle up to £4,000 under rule 9.9(1)(a)(ii) of the Insolvency (England and Wales) Rules 2016 as amended by SI 2024/622, also in force 28 June 2024.

Other property is capped at £2,000 and surplus income at £75 a month, both set by SI 2021/673 and in force since 29 June 2021.

A Debt Relief Order is not available in Scotland and the Minimal Asset Process is not a Scottish version of one. They are separate schemes with different limits and different administrators.

Whether the Minimal Asset Process is a Scottish Debt Relief Order takes the comparison apart properly, and choosing between the two Scottish routes covers the decision you actually face.

Why the confusion is worth clearing up

A Minimal Asset Process engages the directorship prohibition, the credit disclosure duties and the register entry, because it is a sequestration. Section 2(2) is a gateway into bankruptcy, not an alternative to it.

The arithmetic is where the comparison stops being useful. Treating the two as equivalents beyond the numbers leads to advice that does not fit either system.

The orders are similar and the undertakings are not. England and Wales have both, and no bankruptcy restrictions undertaking can be made in Scotland now.

The periods

Section 159(2) splits the Scottish position by who makes the order, and Schedule 4A to the Insolvency Act 1986 gives the English court a single 2 to 15 year range.

The undertaking point, precisely

No bankruptcy restrictions undertaking can be made now. The 2016 Act provides for orders and interim orders only.

The term still appears on the Register of Insolvencies and in the Accountant in Bankruptcy’s guidance, because undertakings given under the older regime can still be recorded there.

So if English guidance offers you the chance to sign one and avoid a hearing, that is a procedure Schedule 4A creates for England and Wales. What a bankruptcy restrictions order is deals with the Scottish position.

The Official Receiver, the county court petition, the adjudicator, the £680 fee, the Debt Relief Order and the individual voluntary arrangement. None of them exists in the Scottish system, and no bankruptcy restrictions undertaking can be made here either.

A translation table

The absconding offence is the one that frightens people most. Section 358 of the Insolvency Act 1986 extends to England and Wales only, and even there it is about leaving with property rather than about leaving.

Whether you can travel abroad while bankrupt deals with that import in full, because it is the single most misunderstood point on the subject.

A quick test for any page you read

Look for the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016 or the Accountant in Bankruptcy. A page that names the Official Receiver, a county court or a £680 fee is describing a system that does not apply to you.

Where the page is silent about jurisdiction altogether, treat it as English until it proves otherwise. How to apply in Scotland and what it costs are the two answers most commonly got wrong.