Accountant in Bankruptcy (AiB) reports, requests and orders: FOI release

Information requested

1. Covering the period 1st January 2013 to 25th November 2013, how many "Suspected Offence Reports" were submitted to the AiB by external Trustees in Bankruptcy?

2. Covering the period 26th November 2013 to the present day, how many "Suspected Offence Reports" have been submitted to the AiB by external Trustees in Bankruptcy?

3. Covering the fiscal years 2020/2021, 2021/2022 and 2022/2023, how many FOISA requests were received and how many were reported to the Scottish Information Commissioner as complaints i.e. breaches of FOISA 2002? Please show the data by individual year.

4. Covering the fiscal years 2020/2021, 2021/2022 and 2022/2023, how many DSAR requests were received and how many were reported to the Information Commissioners Office as complaints i.e. breaches of the DPA 2018? Please show the data by individual year.

5. Covering the period 1st April 2008 to the present day, how many "Public Interest Tests" were carried out by the AiB?

6. Covering the period 1st April 2008 to the present day, how many Bankruptcy Restriction Orders have been secured by the AiB for terms exceeding 10 years or more? Please show the data by individual year i.e. number of BROs secured and the associated term, for example, 2016 : BRO for 13 years.

Response

I can provide some of the information you requested.

1. An exemption under section 26(a) of FOISA (disclosure prohibited by an enactment) applies to the information requested because section 3(4) of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 1985, as amended, prohibits the disclosure of this information. This exemption is not subject to the ‘public interest test’, so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.

2. An exemption under section 26(a) of FOISA (disclosure prohibited by an enactment) applies to the information requested because section 3(4) of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 1985, as amended, and section 50(4) of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016 prohibits the disclosure of this information. This exemption is not subject to the ‘public interest test’, so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.

3. The information requested is shown on Table 1 of Annex A attached to this response. There was one complaint made to the Scottish Information Commissioners Office in 2020/2021.

Information relating to Freedom of Information requests is published yearly in our Annual Report. The latest report can be found on our website at Accountant in Bankruptcy - Scotland's Insolvency Service - Annual Report and Accounts 2022-23 (aib.gov.uk).

4. The information requested is shown on Table 2 of Annex A attached to this response. There was no complaints made to the Information Commissioner during the period requested.

Information relating to Subject Access Requests published yearly in our Annual Report The latest report can be found on our website at Accountant in Bankruptcy - Scotland's Insolvency Service - Annual Report and Accounts 2022-23 (aib.gov.uk).

5. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Accountant in Bankruptcy (AiB) does not have the information you have requested as no specific note is made when a Public Interest Test is carried out which can be extracted from our systems. AiB staff do consider the public interest test when it is appropriate to do within a process, for example bankruptcy restriction investigations and freedom of information requests.

6. The information requested is shown in the Table 3 of Annex A attached to this response.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI 202400401800 - Information released - Annex A

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