Bankruptcy and Diligence (Scotland) Act 2024

14 Service of documents and arrestee’s duty of disclosure

(1) Part 3A of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987 is modified as follows.

(2) After section 73C, insert—

“73CA Service of documents for purposes of sections 73B and 73C

(1) In relation to the service of documents for the purposes of sections 73B and 73C, the documents must be served on the arrestee either—

(a) by being sent to the proper address of the arrestee—

(i) by a registered post service (as defined in section 125(1) of the Postal Services Act 2000), or

(ii) by a postal service which provides for the delivery of the document to be recorded, or

(b) by being transmitted to the arrestee electronically.

(2) But, despite subsection (1), if it is impossible or impracticable for the documents to be served on the arrestee in either of the ways described in that subsection, service of the documents may instead be effected by any other competent mode of service.

(3) For the purpose of subsection (1)(a), the proper address of the arrestee is—

(a) in the case of a body corporate, the address of the registered or principal office of the body,

(b) in the case of a partnership, the address of the principal office of the partnership,

(c) in any other case, the last known address of the arrestee.

(4) Where a document is served as mentioned in subsection (1)(a) on an address in the United Kingdom it is to be taken to have been received 48 hours after it is sent unless the contrary is shown.

(5) For the purpose of subsection (1)(b)—

(a) electronic transmission of a document must be effected in a way that the arrestee has indicated to the creditor or officer of court that the arrestee is willing to receive the document,

(b) the arrestee’s indication of willingness to receive a document in a particular way may be—

(i) specific to the document in question or generally applicable to documents of that kind,

(ii) expressed specifically to the creditor or officer of court or generally (for example on a website),

(iii) inferred from the arrestee having previously been willing to receive documents from the creditor or officer of court in that way and not having indicated unwillingness to do so again,

(c) the creditor or officer of court’s uploading of a document to an electronic storage system from which the arrestee is able to download the document may constitute electronic transmission of the document, where the arrestee is sent a notification that the document has been uploaded in that way,

(d) a notice transmitted electronically is taken to have been received on the day of transmission unless the contrary is shown.”.

(3) In section 73G(4) (arrestee’s duty of disclosure)—

(a) in paragraph (a), the word “and” after sub-paragraph (ii) is repealed,

(b) after paragraph (b), insert—

“(c) where no property is attached, the reason why (for example, the arrestee does not hold funds standing to the credit of the debtor, or does hold such funds but the sum held is less than sum mentioned in section 73F(3)(a)).”.

(4) In section 73H (failure to disclose information)—

(a) in subsection (1)(b), for “mentioned in section 73F(4) of this Act” substitute “of £500”,

(b) after subsection (4), insert—

“(5) The Scottish Ministers may by regulations modify subsection (1)(b) so as to vary the sum mentioned there.”.