PTD Bulletin - Autumn 2024

The Scottish Statutory Debt Solutions Statistics - Annual edition for 2023-2024 was published on the 28 August 2024.

Below is a summary of the key figures in trust deeds.

Registrations of Protected Trust Deeds

• there were 5,587 PTD's registered in 2023-24, a 1.0% decrease on 2022-23
• in 2019-20, there were 8,743 PTD's registered, the highest since 2011-12. During the COVID-19 pandemic the number of PTD's registered fell by nearly 40%
• since the pandemic the number of PTD's registered has increased slightly but remain steady
• registrations of PTD's in 2023-24 remain below pre-pandemic levels

Outcome of Protected Trust Deeds

• there were 5,999 trust deeds advertised in 2023-24, a 1.0% increase on 2022-23
• of the 5,999 trust deeds, around 92.8% did become protected eventually
• there were 5,587 PTD's registered in 2023-24, a 1.0% decrease on 2022-23
• almost 95% of advertised trust deeds were protected in 2023-24

Protected Trust Deeds concluded

• there were 7,170 PTD's concluded in 2023-24. Of these, a dividend was paid to creditors in 80.0% of cases concluded in year, an increase on the proportion in the previous year (76.6%)
• when we exclude failed PTD's (these are PTD's where the debtor is not discharged, but the trustee is), a dividend was paid in 90.6% of cases concluded in 2023-24

Ordinary creditor dividends

Of the 5,736 cases where ordinary creditor dividends were paid:

• 9% of cases paid at less than 25 pence in the pound, which is less than the 73.9% of cases in 2022-23
• 2% of cases were paid at 100 pence in the pound plus interest, which is less than the 2.5% of cases in 2022-23

Dividend distribution for concluded PTD's in 2023-24

In 2023-24, almost £61.7 million was ingathered:

• 7% more than the total receipts in 2022-23
• 9% of the total receipts were payable to ordinary creditors through a dividend, compared with 39.7% in 2022-23

Meaning the majority of total receipts were allocated to administration expenses.

• the average administration cost of a PTD that concluded with a dividend payable was £5,900 in 2023-24 compared with £6,100 in 2022-23
• for all PTD's including those with zero dividends, the mean dividend paid to ordinary creditors during 2023-24 was 17.3 pence in the £ compared with 15.8 pence in the £ in 2022-23
• in 2023-24, over £3.3 million was ingathered for PTD's concluded where no dividend was payable, compared with £3.9 million in 2022-23
• the average administration cost of a PTD that concluded with no dividend payable was £2,300 in 2023-24, compared with £2,400 in 2022-23

PTD Form 7 and Form 11 performance

The percentage of cases where administration costs have increased by 25% or more includes PTD's where there has been increased complexity or a lack of co-operation from the debtor, requiring the trustee to commit more time to the administration in these cases.

The number of PTD's where a dividend was not paid to creditors decreased in 2023-24 by 15.5%. A proportion of these cases were not concluded, therefore the debtor was not discharged from liability to pay the debts included in the PTD.