This publication series contains the latest annual statistics on statutory debt solutions in Scotland. The statistics are compiled by Accountant in Bankruptcy (AiB), an executive agency of the Scottish Government, and are derived from AiB administrative records.
Non-statutory debt solutions, where debtors make their own arrangements with creditors or enter informal debt management plans with a debt management firm, are not included in these statistics.
These statistics presented in this have been classed as ‘experimental’ - see below for more information on Experimental Statistics. The work programme has focused on user needs, completeness of the data collected and quality assurance processes.
At as 07 August 2023: The 2022-23 release now includes small corrections to some data on PTDs, DAS Outcomes and Bankruptcy local authority analysis. These corrections did not affect the core messages from this release.
| Edition | Release date | Main report | PDF report | Tables | Next Release |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year 2022-23 | 02 August 2023 | HTML report | Word(printable) | Excel tables | 7 August 2024 |
| Year 2021-22 | 27 July 2022 | HTML report | Word(printable) | Excel tables | Summer 2023 |
| Year 2020-21 | 02 August 2021 | HTML report | PDF (printable) | Excel tables | 27 July 2022 |
Things you need to know about this release
Experimental Statistics label
Experimental statistics are a type of official statistics that are undergoing development. In this new publication series, the experimental statistics label has been used with the aim for compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics. These statistics are currently being developed and have been published to involve users and stakeholders in their development, and to build in quality and understanding at an early stage.
Section 6.1 of the 2007 Statistics and Registration Service Act defines official statistics as statistics produced by the UK Statistics Authority, government departments (including executive agencies), the Devolved Administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, any other person acting on behalf of the Crown or any other organisation named on an Official Statistics Order.
Under the Act, official statistics should comply with the Code of Practice for Statistics and fall within the scope of the Office for Statistics Regulation, which assesses their compliance against the Code of Practice.
Further information on the standards of official statistics in Scotland is available - About our statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
Development work programme
Over the next year, a work programme to continuously evaluate and improve the existing output will be carried out. More specificially, the work programme will focus on three areas: User needs; Completeness of the data collected; Quality assurance processes.
Part of the aim of this publication is to engage with users and potential users of our statistics in order to assess the suitability and value of the statistics released. Users are central to the statistics that AiB produce, and we want to ensure that key information about each of the statutory debt solutions is easily accessible and valued. Therefore, we are seeking your feedback on this publication to improve the product and better support our user base. Please do get in touch with us via e-mail - aib_statistics@gov.scot. In the near future, we will create an anonymous online feedback survey and we will share this with our stakeholders. No information about participants is collected without their explicit consent.
Currently, all statistics for the financial year 2019-20 and 2020-21 are included in this publication. Some statistics for earlier years up to 2015-16 are also included. AiB is continuously working on improving the quality and completeness of this statistical publication. The major limitation to this work is that statistics are derived from administrative systems owned by AiB. Some of these systems have been long decommissioned, and some records are permanently deleted according to AiB's data retention and destruction policy. Hence, the data for earlier years is limited. However, we will include estimates for early years if these are available during the work programme.