Three different things get merged when people answer it. A statutory bar, a regulator’s rule and a clause in your contract are not the same thing at all.

What follows keeps them apart and names a provision for every bar. How a MAP works covers the process itself.

No. Nothing in Scottish bankruptcy law prevents you from working, and there is no general duty to tell an employer that you have applied.

Three different restrictions, three different sources

Only the first of those is fixed by statute and short. The second and third depend entirely on who you work for and what you do.

What the official guidance says

mygov.scot says bankruptcy may affect doing and applying for some jobs, gives a short list, and says in terms that the list is not complete.

Its restrictions page adds local council member. Anyone reeling off a long list of professions as though it were settled is filling gaps rather than quoting a source.

The same page states that a bankrupt cannot act under a power of attorney and that an existing arrangement is revoked. It gives no statutory basis for that, so ask before relying on it.

Five, and each has its own Act. Every one of them ends on your discharge unless a bankruptcy restrictions order is made.

The five, with their provisions

The director rule reaches further than the job title

Section 11 covers acting as a director, and taking part in or being concerned in the promotion, formation or management of a company, without the leave of the court.

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.

It also reaches a company incorporated outside Great Britain with an established place of business here. The provision is drafted to cover a sequestration awarded other than by a court.

Two of the five carry no court wording at all

Section 390(4)(a) of the Insolvency Act 1986 asks only whether sequestration of the person’s estate has been awarded and they have not been discharged.

An undischarged bankrupt is not qualified to act as an insolvency practitioner, under section 390(4)(a) of the Insolvency Act 1986.

The Justice of the Peace provision is drafted the same way, asking whether the person’s estate has been sequestrated in Scotland, so a Minimal Asset Process is squarely caught.

A Justice of the Peace is disqualified from being appointed or acting, under section 73(1)(a) of the Criminal Proceedings etc. (Reform) (Scotland) Act 2007.

The solicitor’s position is stronger than the guidance suggests

A Scottish solicitor’s practising certificate ceases to have effect on sequestration under section 18(1)(c) of the Solicitors (Scotland) Act 1980, and revives on discharge under section 19(4).

Under section 18(2) there is an immediate duty to intimate the circumstances to the Council in writing, and section 19(6) lets a solicitor apply to have the suspension terminated.

And the charity rule names the MAP discharge by section

Section 70(3) of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 defines an undischarged bankrupt by reference to discharge under section 140 of the 2016 Act, which is the MAP discharge.

A charity trustee is disqualified under section 69(2)(b)(i) of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005, and acting while disqualified is an offence, though the regulator may waive it.

The provisions covering members of parliament and local councillors are written around a sequestration awarded by a court, and a Minimal Asset Process award is made by the Accountant in Bankruptcy rather than a court. Whether they bite is not settled.

The wording, and why it matters

Section 427(1) of the Insolvency Act 1986 is keyed to a court in Scotland awarding sequestration, and so is section 31(1)(b) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973.

A Minimal Asset Process exists only by debtor application, and a debtor application is awarded by the Accountant in Bankruptcy rather than by a court.

What can be said, and what cannot

mygov.scot states that a bankrupt cannot be an MP or a local council member, and those are the provisions it is describing.

Whether they reach an award made by the Accountant in Bankruptcy is not resolved by any published source. If this affects you, take advice rather than a guess from an article.

The councillor point is clean where an order is made

Section 31(1)(ba) disqualifies anyone subject to a bankruptcy restrictions order, with no court wording at all. That limb is not affected by the difficulty.

It was inserted on 1 April 2008 by the Bankruptcy and Diligence etc. (Scotland) Act 2007. The definition it uses was re-pointed at section 155 of the 2016 Act on 30 November 2016.

Financial services work is not closed off. The Financial Conduct Authority’s fitness test treats bankruptcy as a matter to weigh rather than a disqualification.

What the Handbook actually says

The Financial Conduct Authority’s fitness test treats bankruptcy, sequestration and arrangements with creditors as matters to weigh rather than as automatic disqualifications.

The relevant provisions sit in chapter 2.3 of the fitness and propriety guidance, and both are guidance rather than rules.

The Handbook says in terms that the fact a person may be of limited financial means will not, in itself, affect their suitability to perform a controlled function.

What that leaves you with

A firm still has to consider the position, and it may have its own policy. What it cannot do is point at the Handbook and say bankruptcy disqualifies you.

The same question comes up earlier for people facing deductions, at whether a wage arrestment affects a job in financial services.

A trust deed sits in the same provision

The Handbook’s financial soundness factors include arrangements made with creditors, which covers a protected trust deed as well as a sequestration.

So choosing a different formal solution does not automatically remove the question. It changes which limb of the guidance applies.

Ask your regulator directly

Two questions cover it. Does a sequestration have to be reported, and if so within what timescale?

Ask in writing if you can. A written answer protects you if the question comes up later.

There is no general duty in the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016 to tell an employer anything. Where an obligation exists it usually comes from your contract or your regulator.

Read the contract before you decide

Roles handling money, and roles requiring registration, are the ones most likely to carry a reporting clause. That is a question for employment advice rather than for a money adviser.

The information is public in any event

The Register of Insolvencies records every award and anyone may search it free of charge. How long a MAP stays on the register sets out what the entry holds.

mygov.scot states 18 months from the date of bankruptcy for a MAP, and no statutory retention period exists at all.

One thing that stops being visible

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.

If deductions have been coming off your pay, your employer already knows something is wrong. Whether a MAP stops an existing wage arrestment covers the timing, and whether an employer can dismiss you over one covers the employment side.

Six months, in an ordinary MAP. Section 140(1) discharges you automatically on that date, and every one of the five bars is keyed to being undischarged.

The clocks in order

The section 146 conditions that follow discharge are about credit and business names, not employment, and which restrictions still apply after a MAP ends sets them out.

The exception that changes the picture

A bankruptcy restrictions order is available in a MAP and section 159(2) gives two to five years for one made by AiB and five to fifteen for one made by the sheriff.

AiB says an order carries further restrictions on holding certain public offices and jobs. Full and accurate disclosure at the application stage is the best protection against one.

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.

Your contract, your regulator and your directorships. Those three cover almost everything that turns a debt solution into a work problem.

The checklist

What none of this covers

Vetting for a criminal record and vetting for financial history are different exercises. A sequestration is a civil process and appears on a public insolvency register.

Where an employer runs a credit check as part of recruitment, the entry on your credit file is what it sees. That is a separate question from any statutory bar.

Raise it at the first appointment

A money adviser cannot advise on your employment contract. They can tell you how the bankruptcy side works and whether another solution avoids the problem.

For a regulated role that distinction matters, because a debt payment programme is not an insolvency at all.

And check the eligibility conditions while you are at it

Whether you are eligible for a MAP runs through all eight, and the equivalent position in a longer bankruptcy is at which jobs sequestration affects.

The credit side has its own rules while you are undischarged, covered at whether you can get credit during a MAP.