I WRITE in response to your recent editorial ("A grim reality for many", The Herald, December 16).
I must point out that the numbers of bankruptcies in Scotland have in fact been falling year-on-year since 2008/09. In fact, at 7112, the total number of bankruptcies awarded in 2013/14 is fewer than 50 per cent of those recorded in 2008/09. Additionally, published statistics show that the number of bankruptcies recorded in the latest quarter was at its lowest level in six years.
Even taking into account the number of Protected Trust Deeds, which together with bankruptcies account for all personal insolvencies in Scotland, the figures show a declining trend in each year since 2011/12 with the 2013/14 figures at their lowest level since 2007/08.
The Scottish Government operates the Debt Arrangement Scheme (DAS), which is the only statutory debt management solution in the UK which results in all debts being paid during the period of a debt payment programme. In 2008/09 the numbers of DAS debt payment programmes amounted to approximately 4% of the total number of statutory debt solutions in Scotland. Recent quarterly figures highlight that this figure has increased to over 30% and I fully expect this trend to continue in the future.
Earlier this month, I was delighted to launch Scotland's Financial Health Service (www.scotlandsfinancialhealthservice.gov.uk). This Scottish Government initiative is targeted at the early diagnosis of financial difficulty and is designed specifically to direct people facing these issues to trusted organisations who can provide free and impartial advice. The aim is to further reduce the number of Scottish insolvencies and accelerate the trend that I have highlighted.
I am under no illusion that factors including benefit cuts and low wages have impacted on people's ability to keep up with their debts and much still needs to be done at a UK level to make further progress on vital issues including the difficulties associated with payday lending. However, in the interests of fairness, it is important to point out the very real progress that has been achieved.
Fergus Ewing,
Minister for Business, Energy and Tourism,
St Andrew's House, Regent Road, Edinburgh.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article