Dear Trustee - Bankruptcy Restrictions Investigation applications for failure to co-operate

Dear Trustee

I would be grateful if you could bring the content of this letter to the attention of all your staff who are involved in the administration of your bankruptcies.

I am writing to notify you of an amendment to the evidence required when submitting a Bankruptcy Restriction Investigation (BRI) application to AiB, under the ground at Section 156(2)(n) of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016 – Failure to co-operate.

As you may be aware, if the decision is made to refuse debtor discharge under section 137 of The Act, the debtor remains subject to the same restrictions as a Bankruptcy Restrictions Order (BRO) would impose.

However, there may be circumstances where the trustee considers the debtor’s behaviour to be more serious which may result in a BRO. Section 50(3)(ii) of The Act refers.

Where such circumstances apply, before submitting a BRI application to AiB for this ground, it is expected that the trustee will have used all avenues available to them within the legislation to obtain debtor co-operation. This includes obtaining a court order under Section 215 of The Act.

If the debtor fails to comply with the court order, the trustee should consider submitting a BRI application, via BASYS, enclosing all evidence, including a copy of the Section 215 order, for consideration.

If a Section 215 order is not included with a BRI application, no investigation will be taken forward

If you have any questions, please contact the Bankruptcy Restrictions Team at BRT@aib.gov.uk.

Yours faithfully

Kimberley Kerr

Head of Adjudications and Supervision