The Scottish Government has published a consultation on the draft Regulations for the Mental Health Moratorium. The moratorium will protect people with serious mental health problems from debt recovery action by creditors.

The idea of a Mental Health Moratorium achieved broad support in the Bankruptcy and debt advice review: consultation. An enabling power to establish such a moratorium is included in the Bankruptcy and Diligence (Scotland) Act 2024.

A Mental Health Moratorium Working Group was formed to look at possible ways the Mental Health Moratorium could work in practice. The membership includes mental health professionals, representatives from the debt advice community and the creditor sector. A series of meetings and in-depth discussions resulted in the publication of the Mental Health Moratorium Working Group - report of recommendations.

A previous consultation on the Mental Health Moratorium sought views on the potential administrative process for such a moratorium. A report of the summary of responses to that consultation has been published.

Following that consultation there has been continuing engagement with stakeholders to support the development of draft Regulations for the Mental Health Moratorium, The draft Debt Recovery (Mental Health Moratorium) (Scotland) Regulations.

This consultation provides an opportunity to receive further feedback on the latest draft of the Regulations and the detailed implementation of the Mental Health Moratorium.

Anyone interested in the Mental Health Moratorium are encouraged to provide feedback on the draft regulations.

The consultation will close on 17 March 2025.

If you have any questions, please email the Policy Development enquiry mailbox.