The Bankruptcy and Diligence (Scotland) Act 2024
The Bankruptcy and Diligence (Scotland) Act 2024
The Bankruptcy and Diligence (Scotland) Act (the “2024 Act”) was introduced to bring together stakeholder recommendations from stage 2 of the review of statutory debt solutions and the review of diligence, which required to be taken forward through primary legislation.
The Act was approved by Parliament on 6 June 2024 and received Royal Assent on 15 July 2024.
It contains provisions that broadly fall into three categories:
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an enabling power to introduce a mental health moratorium - a new form of moratorium protection for a specific group of debtors, being those who are experiencing serious difficulties with their mental health as well as having problem debt
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technical amendments to the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016 (the “2016 Act”)
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diligence measures that modernise existing debt recovery mechanisms and allow for improved processes
For more information on the passage of the Act, please visit the Scottish Parliament website.
The relevant impact assessments are available on the Scottish Government website.
Commencement regulations
The 2024 Act is being commenced in stages to factor in other associated work required, for example amendments to court rules and further stakeholder engagement.
The drop-down menus below detail how each section of the 2024 Act will be commenced and indicates how they will be grouped together.
As commencement is subject to Parliamentary processes, Scottish Government workflows and, for certain sections changes to court rules, this may be subject to change.
Sections 6, 8, 9, 10, 13, 17, 19 and 20
These sections were commenced by the Bankruptcy and Diligence (Scotland) Act 2024 (Commencement No.1, Transitional and Saving Provisions) Regulations 2024 and came into force on 20 January 2025.
More information on these regulations can be found in the accompanying policy note.
Sections 4, 5, 11 and 12
The Bankruptcy and Diligence (Scotland) Act 2024 (Commencement No.2, Transitional and Saving Provisions) Regulations 2025 were laid in Parliament on 3 April 2025 to commence the above sections, and commenced on 25 June 2025. More information on these regulations can be found in the accompanying policy note.
Consequential regulations are required to support the commencement and implementation of sections 4 and 12. Therefore, the Bankruptcy and Diligence (Scotland) Act 2024 (Consequential Amendments and Forms) Regulations 2025 were laid in Parliament on 15 May 2025 and commenced on 25 June 2025. More information on these regulations can be found in the accompanying policy note and impact assessments.
Sections 1, 2 and 3
The commencement of these sections will require proceed when the mental health moratorium regulations are ready to be laid. We have recently run a consultation exercise to seek views on draft regulations which have shown that further stakeholder engagement is required to seek consensus on some areas such as the eligibility criteria.
Commencement will be dependent on these discussions.
Sections 7, 14, 16 and 18
These sections require changes to court rules and we have started this process.
Commencement will be dependent on the courts timetable.
Sections 14 and 16 also cannot commence until after a wider diligence consultation has been finalised and analysed.
Section 15
This section requires the Scottish Government to consult on diligence within 1 year of it coming into force.
Commencement of section 15 will therefore be timed around publication of the consultation.