The draft Debt Recovery (Mental Health Moratorium) (Scotland) Regulations

The Bankruptcy and Diligence (Scotland) Bill completed its progress through the Scottish Parliament on 6 June 2024. Section 1 of the Bill requires Scottish Ministers to create a moratorium on debt recovery action by creditors against individuals who have a mental illness. This is an enabling power which lays out the framework for the moratorium with the detail of the process to be provided in secondary legislation. This does cover the collection of rent and tenancy related debt.

The next stage is a consultation on the secondary legislation including the option of extending the moratorium to evictions. The Scottish Government’s current view is “we do not think it would be proportionate, when balancing the rights of both tenants and landlords, to introduce further restrictions on eviction in the draft mental health moratorium regulations.” However, it is distinctly possible that others, including MSPs, will disagree. So, a strong response from the sector on this would be helpful.

The consultation paper is available here.