It is the statutory public register of Scottish insolvency, kept by the Accountant in Bankruptcy. It is not a court record and it is not a credit file.

The statutory basics

Regulation 30(1) requires the register to be kept in the form specified in schedule 2 to the regulations, which is where the fields are prescribed.

What the official page does not tell you

The Scottish Government’s own page on the register runs to fewer than a hundred words. It explains what the register contains and links to the search, and it never answers the question people arrive with.

That gap is why so many different figures are in circulation. Everything below is attributed to whoever actually says it.

It is not only about bankruptcy

Section 200(2) puts trust deeds sent for registration and moratorium notices on the same register, along with bankruptcy restrictions orders and corporate insolvency.

So an entry does not tell a reader on its own which solution somebody used. The Accountant in Bankruptcy’s own register page is linked from mygov.scot with individual and company searches.

More than most people expect. Appendix A to the Accountant in Bankruptcy’s notes for guidance sets out every field it holds.

The fields that matter to a reader

Your home address, date of birth, occupation and the level of debt at the date of bankruptcy are all in there. That is a real consequence and it is not on any page currently ranking for this query.

A moratorium puts you on it before any award

Section 200(2)(a) enters particulars of a person who has given notice of intention to apply for sequestration, and the moratorium period runs from the day that entry is made.

So the register is the mechanism as well as the record. Taking a moratorium is a public step, which is worth knowing before you take one.

Anyone, and no. There is no permission to obtain and no notification when somebody looks you up.

The right to search is statutory

Section 200(7) requires the register to be made available for inspection at all reasonable times, and requires a certified copy of an entry to be provided to any person on request.

The free online search is how that duty is met rather than a separate legal rule. There is no list of who has searched your name.

There is no charge and no gatekeeping

You do not need a reason to search, an account or a permitted purpose. That is the difference between a public register and a credit file.

Who realistically looks

Creditors, sheriff officers, insolvency practitioners and credit reference agencies use it as a matter of routine. Whether you have to tell a new employer covers the employment side of that.

It is also how a creditor verifies an award in about a minute. What sequestration does to diligence explains why that verification matters.

No statutory period exists. Neither section 200 nor regulation 30 contains one.

Five answers are in circulation and they do not reconcile

The notes for guidance give a formula that tracks events rather than a fixed number, while mygov.scot gives flat figures. Both are guidance.

Why a formula and a flat figure cannot both be right

One is outcome driven and moves with the trustee’s work. The other is a fixed number counted from the award.

They will only ever coincide by accident. We have not reconciled them and we are not going to invent a number that does.

Commercial pages fill the gap with numbers of their own

Two years, five years and one year after the trustee’s discharge are all in print across the pages ranking for this query. One charity gives five years on its sequestration page and at least two years on its own Minimal Asset Process page.

None of those is a legal period, because there is no legal period to state. Treat any page that gives you a flat figure without naming its source with some caution.

Appendix A settles it a third way

The Accountant in Bankruptcy’s own list of what the register holds runs to nine headings and contains no retention or removal rule at all.

For the Minimal Asset Process the published figures differ again. How long a MAP stays on the register goes through those.

Because the practice that is published ties removal to the trustee’s discharge, and that is a different event from yours. The Accountant in Bankruptcy’s debtor guide says details remain for one year after the trustee obtained their discharge.

Three separate endings, three separate dates

Discharge frees you from the debts it covers, but it does not end the sequestration. Your trustee carries on, a debtor contribution order carries on, and the estate is still being dealt with.

Your own discharge normally comes twelve months after the award, and the trustee’s discharge is a separate event under sections 148 to 151 once the estate has been dealt with. What a trustee in sequestration does sets out the work in between.

Why the two are often confused

Both are called a discharge and both come with a certificate. One releases you from the debts and the other releases the trustee from liability for administering the estate.

The register follows the second one on the practice that is published. That is why an entry can still be there long after you have stopped thinking about the case.

The payments run past your discharge as well

It normally runs for 48 months, which is longer than the twelve months to discharge. The payments carry on after you are discharged.

So discharge does not end the case, clear the register or stop the contribution. Whether discharge ends everything at twelve months deals with all three, and how long a sequestration lasts sets the clocks side by side.

In one narrow situation, yes. It is a safety provision rather than a privacy option.

The test

Regulation 30(2) provides that information need not be included where the Accountant in Bankruptcy is of the opinion that including it would be likely to put any person at risk of violence, or otherwise jeopardise the safety or welfare of any person.

Section 200(8) is the enabling power behind it. The wording covers any person, not only the debtor.

What it is for

It exists for situations such as domestic abuse, where publishing an address could put somebody in danger. It is not a route for keeping a bankruptcy quiet.

Raise it before the application goes in

This is a point for your money adviser to put to the Accountant in Bankruptcy at the right moment. Making it after publication is a much harder conversation.

There is no general right to have an entry removed early, and no route based on embarrassment or on a new job.

No, and the two are unrelated. Different holders, different rules and different timescales.

The two records side by side

mygov.scot, National Debtline and Citizens Advice Scotland all give around six years for a bankruptcy on a credit file, and none of them is describing a statutory rule.

The register emptying and the file clearing are separate events that do not set each other. How sequestration affects your credit file deals with the file in detail.

What being on the register changes day to day

For most people, very little on its own. The practical consequences come from the credit disclosure duties and from a small number of restricted roles, which which jobs sequestration affects sets out with a statute for each one.

While you are undischarged you must tell a lender you are bankrupt if you are borrowing £2,000 or more, or any amount at all if you already owe £1,000 or more.

That is section 218(13), with the definitions in section 219(2), and both have been in force since 30 November 2016. Neither figure has been changed since.

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.