Recovery and Insolvency Services

Loss of Coherence

02/09/2015 by Webmaster

A new Scottish bankruptcy bill is promising to put an end to the loss of coherence.

At page 41 of “A Stronger Scotland: The government’s programme for Scotland 2015-16” it confirms:

The Scottish Government will also bring forward the Bankruptcy Consolidation Bill to put Scotland’s bankruptcy legislation in one place in order to ensure that Scottish bankruptcy law is readable, accessible and easier for both practitioners and those affected by the law to use.

BANKRUPTCY CONSOLIDATION BILL

The Scottish Government is committed to modernising debt management and debt relief, ensuring the options available to help people in financial difficulty are appropriate for the 21st century. Extensive consultation and reform of personal insolvency has introduced many legislative changes over the last decade, with the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 1985 heavily amended so that the ordering of the legislative provisions has lost coherence and structure. Consolidation will make the legislation more accessible for practitioners and those affected by it, saving time and money.

Presumably the legislation will go back to the draft bill produced by the Scottish Law Commission’s Report on the Consolidation of Bankruptcy Legislation in Scotland (SCOT LAW COM No 232) published on 14 May 2013.

There is, however, an election coming up in barely 8 months, it remains to be seen what progress is made. It is what Christine McLintock, President of the Law Society of Scotland, politely describes as a “challenging timescale”.  

"Could you possibly be a little more incoherent?" asked Olivenko. "There are bits of this I'm almost understanding, and I'm sure that's not what you have in mind.”   ― Orson Scott Card, Ruins

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