2024 No. 293
Enforcement

The Diligence against Earnings (Variation) (Scotland) Regulations 2024

Made
Laid before the Scottish Parliament
Coming into force
The Scottish Ministers make the following Regulations in exercise of the powers conferred by sections 49(7)(a), 53(3) and 63(6) of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 19871 and all other powers enabling them to do so.

Citation and commencement1.

These Regulations may be cited as the Diligence against Earnings (Variation) (Scotland) Regulations 2024 and come into force on 6 April 2025.

Rate of deductions in diligence against earnings2.

In the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987—

(a)

in sections 53(2)(b) (deductions to be made under current maintenance arrestments) and 63(4)(b) (deductions to be made under conjoined arrestment orders), for “21.56”2 substitute “24.66”, and

(b)

for Tables A, B and C of schedule 23 (deductions to be made under earnings arrestment), substitute respectively Tables A, B and C in the schedule of these Regulations.
IVAN MCKEE
Authorised to sign by the Scottish Ministers

St Andrew’s House,

Edinburgh

SCHEDULE

Regulation 2(b)

TABLE A: DEDUCTIONS FROM WEEKLY EARNINGS

Net earnings

Deduction (1)

Not exceeding £172.61

Nil

Exceeding £172.61 but not exceeding £345.22

£2.30 or 15% of earnings exceeding £172.61, whichever is the greater

Exceeding £345.22 but not exceeding £575.37

£25.89 plus 20% of earnings exceeding £345.22

Exceeding £575.37 but not exceeding £863.06

£71.92 plus 25% of earnings exceeding £575.37

Exceeding £863.06

£143.84 plus 50% of earnings exceeding £863.06

(1)

When applying a percentage the calculation should be done to two decimal places of a penny and the result rounded to the nearest whole penny, with an exact half penny being rounded down.

TABLE B: DEDUCTIONS FROM MONTHLY EARNINGS

Net earnings

Deduction (1)

Not exceeding £750.00

Nil

Exceeding £750.00 but not exceeding £1,500.00

£10.00 or 15% of earnings exceeding £750.00, whichever is the greater

Exceeding £1,500.00 but not exceeding £2,500.00

£112.50 plus 20% of earnings exceeding £1,500.00

Exceeding £2,500.00 but not exceeding £3,750.00

£312.50 plus 25% of earnings exceeding £2,500.00

Exceeding £3,750.00

£625.00 plus 50% of earnings exceeding £3,750.00

(1)

When applying a percentage the calculation should be done to two decimal places of a penny and the result rounded to the nearest whole penny, with an exact half penny being rounded down.

TABLE C: DEDUCTIONS FROM DAILY EARNINGS

Net earnings

Deduction (1)

Not exceeding £24.66

Nil

Exceeding £24.66 but not exceeding £49.32

£0.33 or 15% of earnings exceeding £24.66, whichever is the greater

Exceeding £49.32 but not exceeding £82.19

£3.70 plus 20% of earnings exceeding £49.32

Exceeding £82.19 but not exceeding £123.29

£10.27 plus 25% of earnings exceeding £82.19

Exceeding £123.29

£20.55 plus 50% of earnings exceeding £123.29

(1)

When applying a percentage the calculation should be done to two decimal places of a penny and the result rounded to the nearest whole penny, with an exact half penny being rounded down.

EXPLANATORY NOTE
(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations make changes to certain figures relating to diligence against earnings in Part 3 of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987 (“the Act”).

Regulation 2(a) increases the figure in sections 53(2)(b) and 63(4)(b) of the Act, used to determine the sum to be deducted from earnings subject to a current maintenance arrestment or conjoined arrestment order where all the debts are current maintenance, from £21.56 to £24.66.

Regulation 2(b) substitutes new Tables A, B and C for those in schedule 2 of the Act which describe the deductions to be made from earnings subject to an earnings arrestment.

In accordance with sections 49(8), 53(4) and (5), 63(7) and (8) and 69(1) and (2) of the Act, these Regulations do not apply to existing diligences until the Regulations are intimated to employers, unless employers choose to apply them. If they do not choose to do so the figures substituted by previous regulations will continue to apply until intimation takes place.

A Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment, Child Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessment and Fairer Scotland Duty Assessment have been prepared and are available online at www.legislation.gov.uk.