Protected trust deeds: improving the process consultation

II. Consultation Arrangements

Protected Trust Deeds - Improving the Process

The Scottish Government is looking make the current trust deed process more efficient and seeks your response to a number of questions to help shape the way trust deeds are administered in future. Your comments should be made by 31 January 2012 .Please send your response with the completed Respondent Information Form (see "Handling your Response" below) to:

PTDconsultationmailbox@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

Or

Any queries can be directed to Sandy McFadyean by telephone on 0300 200 2697 or by e-mail at Alexander.mcfadyean@AiB.gsi.gov.uk .

A full list of the consultation questions is contained in Annex B of this document.

We would be grateful if you would use the consultation questionnaire provided or clearly indicate in your response which questions or parts of the consultation paper you are responding to, as this will aid collation of the responses received.

This consultation, and all other Scottish Government consultation exercises, can be viewed online on the consultation web pages of the Scottish Government website at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/consultations.

The Scottish Government now has an email alert system for consultations http://register.scotland.gov.uk. This system allows stakeholder individuals and organisations to register and receive a weekly email containing details of all new consultations (including web links). This system complements, but in no way replaces Scottish Government distribution lists. It is designed to allow stakeholders to keep up to date with all Scottish Government consultation activity, and therefore be alerted at the earliest opportunity to those of most interest. We would encourage you to register.

Handling your response

We need to know how you wish your response to be handled and, in particular, whether you are happy for your response to be made public. Please complete and return the Respondent Information Form ( Annex B) which forms part of the consultation questionnaire as this will ensure that we treat your response appropriately. If you ask for your response not to be published we will regard it as confidential, and we will treat it accordingly.

All respondents should be aware that the Scottish Government is subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002. We would therefore have to consider any request made to it under the Act for information relating to responses made to this consultation exercise.

Where respondents have given permission for their response to be made public (see the attached Respondent Information Form), these will be made available to the public in the Scottish Government Library and on the Scottish Government consultation web pages by 13 March 2012 . We will check all responses where agreement to publish has been given for any potentially defamatory material before logging them in the library or placing them on the website. You can make arrangements to view responses by contacting the SG Library on 0131 244 4552. Responses can be copied and sent to you, but a charge may be made for this service.

What happens next?

Following the closing date, all responses will be analysed and considered, along with any other available evidence from creditors, debtors insolvency practitioners and other interested parties, to help us develop the trust deed process. We aim to issue a report on this consultation by 24 April 2012 . The report will be posted on the websites of both the Scottish Government and the Accountant in Bankruptcy ( www.AiB.gov.uk). Once this is done we will seek to implement both the necessary guidance and legislation to amend the PTD process.

Comments

If you have any comments about how this consultation exercise has been conducted, please send them to Sandy McFadyean . We welcome your views on any or all of the issues covered by this paper.