Bankruptcy and Attachment (Miscellaneous Amendment) (Scotland) Regulations 2026: equality impact assessment

Recommendations and Conclusion

Provisions within these Regulations are designed to help those within the equality groups if they are struggling with unsustainable debts and require to deal with these through a bankruptcy process or where diligence is being taken against them by a creditor.

Amending the MAP Bankruptcy entry criteria will enable more people to enter this process (as opposed to Full administration bankruptcy) where it is the best solution for them, while increasing the value of assets which don’t vest in a bankruptcy or attach in diligence will enable them to retain a greater value of their possessions.

While statistics demonstrate that more working age adults enter bankruptcy, details of other protected characteristics are not recorded. Bankruptcy is available to all individuals equally irrespective of any protected characteristics they may have. Similarly, statistics are not available to demonstrate any different treatment of individuals with protected characteristics in diligence.

While there may be impacts on returns to creditors this is unlikely to be significant. There are no statistics available on the protected characteristics of creditors in bankruptcy or diligence.

Clarifying in legislation that mobility scooters are excluded in bankruptcy and diligence in all circumstances may have a positive impact on a disabled person. However, there is no evidence to suggest that mobility scooters prevent disabled people from entering a bankruptcy process or that they are taken and sold in bankruptcy cases or attached in diligence.

These Regulations are not creating new products or processes but rather are updating the current ones. The amendments being made will apply equally to individuals irrespective of any protected characteristics.

No equality issues were raised during the Equality Impact Assessment exercise. There were no direct or indirect barriers found as a result of the proposed changes being introduced. The changes introduced widen access to MAP bankruptcy and enable individuals to retain more of their possessions in bankruptcy or when subject to debt recovery measures (diligence).

The impact of the Regulations will be monitored and evaluated on an ongoing basis. Statistics on bankruptcy are collated and published quarterly and these statistics will be used to identify any shift in the recorded protected characteristics, i.e. age. We will also use feedback from stakeholder groups.