Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015

125 Ability for creditors to opt not to receive certain notices: individual insolvency

(1) The Insolvency Act 1986 is amended as follows.

(2) For the italic heading before section 379B substitute—

“Giving of notices etc by office-holders”.

(3) After section 379B insert—

“379C Creditors’ ability to opt out of receiving certain notices

(1) Any provision of the rules which requires an office-holder to give a notice to creditors of an individual does not apply, in circumstances prescribed by the rules, in relation to opted-out creditors.

(2) Subsection (1)—

(a) does not apply in relation to a notice of a distribution or proposed distribution to creditors;

(b) is subject to any order of the court requiring a notice to be given to all creditors (or all creditors of a particular category).

(3) Except as provided by the rules, a creditor may participate and vote in a creditors' decision procedure or a deemed consent procedure even though, by virtue of being an opted-out creditor, the creditor does not receive notice of it.

(4) In this section—

• “give” includes deliver, furnish or send;

• “notice” includes any document or information in any other form;

• “office-holder”, in relation to an individual, means—

  (a)

  where a bankruptcy order is made against the individual, the official receiver or the trustee in bankruptcy;

  (b)

  where an interim receiver of the individual’s property is appointed, the interim receiver;

  (c)

  the supervisor of a voluntary arrangement approved under Part 8 in relation to the individual.”

(4) After section 383 insert—

“383A “Opted-out creditor”

(1) For the purposes of this Group of Parts “opted-out creditor” in relation to an office-holder for an individual means a person who—

(a) is a creditor of the individual, and

(b) in accordance with the rules has elected (or is deemed to have elected) to be (and not to cease to be) an opted-out creditor in relation to the office-holder.

(2) In this section, “office-holder”, in relation to an individual, means—

(a) where a bankruptcy order is made against the individual, the official receiver or the trustee in bankruptcy;

(b) where an interim receiver of the individual’s property is appointed, the interim receiver;

(c) the supervisor of a voluntary arrangement approved under Part 8 in relation to the individual.”

(5) In Schedule 9 (provisions capable of inclusion in individual insolvency rules), after paragraph 7 insert—

“7F Provision for enabling a creditor of an individual to elect to be, or to cease to be, an opted-out creditor in relation to an office-holder for the individual (within the meaning of section 383A), including, in particular, provision—

(a) for requiring an office-holder to provide information to creditors about how they may elect to be, or cease to be, opted-out creditors;

(b) for deeming an election to be, or cease to be, an opted-out creditor in relation to a particular office-holder for an individual to be such an election also in relation to any other office-holder for the individual.”