Official Report 690KB pdf
Diligence against Earnings (Variation) (Scotland) Regulations 2024 (SSI 2024/293)
Our next item of business is consideration of a negative Scottish statutory instrument. The committee is invited to note the instrument, the purpose of which is to amend the figures that are contained in part 3 of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987 that relate to how much money an individual is allowed to keep before a payment can be taken from their wages to recover debts.
Members will be aware that, in our stage 1 report on the Bankruptcy and Diligence (Scotland) Bill, the committee recommended that the amount protected from being seized by creditors in diligence against earnings should be increased to £1,000, in line with the amount that applies to bank arrestments. I am happy to open the discussion to members.
I am happy to see this SSSI—I mean this SSI; I am thinking of the wrong portfolio. I am glad that the SSI increases the protected minimum amount of earnings. However, given that another parliamentary committee recommended that the amount be increased to £1,000, I am disappointed that the instrument would not increase the minimum to £1,000.
I note that, in a large proportion of cases, the creditors are local authorities, so it is concerning that an equalities assessment has not been done, because council tax is a regressive tax. It is not a progressive tax; we know that it affects those on lower incomes disproportionately. That is all connected to the Scottish Government’s failure to reform council tax in order to make it a more progressive tax. I have concerns about trapping people in a cycle of debt.
I am not proposing a motion to annul, but I wonder whether we could ask the minister to attend the committee so that we can ask some questions.
I see that no other members wish to comment. Lorna Slater is proposing that we invite the minister to the committee—next week, we hope, given the tight timescales for the instrument. Are members content to do that?
Members indicated agreement.
Thank you.
We are still waiting for our witnesses to arrive for the next item of business, so I will suspend the meeting until they are here.
09:33 Meeting suspended.