Insolvency Technical Update - February 2019

New Rules relating to corporate insolvency procedures will commence on 6 April 2019 bringing significant changes to the way in which these cases are administered. The following series of articles have been published to highlight the changes and the action that IPs need to take to be prepared for the introduction of the new rules:

• Scottish Insolvency Rules are changing: Summary of changes
• CVL commencement under the Scottish Insolvency Rules 2018
• Communications under the Scottish Insolvency Rules 2018
• Decision making under the Scottish Insolvency Rules 2018
• Time periods under the Scottish Insolvency Rules 2018
• Claims under the Insolvency Scotland Rules 2018

The AiB and Insolvency Service have jointly issued a Table of Destination setting out where provisions within the Insolvency (Scotland) Rules 1986 are contained within the relevant 2018 Rules.

As a result of the new Rules to be introduced on 6 April 2019 the case checklists which have been made available to ICAS members are being updated. The opportunity has been taken to significantly revamp the checklists and move to a product which is capable of being completed digitally. The option to print a checklist will also remain.

The new ICAS Insolvency Case Review System (I-ICRS) is an interactive and dynamic excel based toolkit providing a tailored case review pack based on the case type selected. The enhanced system offers greater efficiencies in completion and a more robust compliance regime over the paper based case review packs issued previously.

I-ICRS will include case reviews for CVAs and MVLs which were not previously available from ICAS with plans to incorporate case review checklists for England and Wales cases in future releases.

I-ICRS will be finalised for issue before the new rules come into effect but can be ordered now. I-ICRS will be available to firms under licence from ICAS at an initial cost of £1,500 exc VAT and an annual subscription (£250 exc VAT) after the first year which will include all relevant updates. A discount of 5% for each ICAS licenced IP in a firm will be applied.

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) have clarified their position in relation to issuing Follower Notices where an individual or a corporate taxpayer has been party to a scheme which HMRC believes constitutes a tax avoidance scheme against which there has been a judicial ruling and the taxpayer is subject to an insolvency process.

Following concerns raised by the Scottish Parliament’s Economy Jobs and Fair Work Committee when considering the draft Common Financial Tool (Scotland) Regulations 2018, it has been announced that the Common Financial Statement will remain as the Common Financial Tool for 2019/20 with updated spending guidelines applied.

Significant changes are being made to the Insolvency Service’s Case Management System which will affect how the Redundancy Payments Service interact with IPs. Further information is given in a special edition of Dear IP 85

The Accountant in Bankruptcy have published a new newsletter ‘Supervision Standard’. The first edition contains articles on:

• Meet the teams
• BASYS developments & updates
• Trustee tips and best practice
• Bankruptcy statistics
• Legislation news

The Government has published guidance for Further Education body Governors providing information on the new Education Administration regime and general guidance on how to reduce the risk of insolvency through good financial management.

ICAS has launched a new way to contact our technical helpdesk services including the Insolvency Technical Helpline. The new facility includes some FAQ and a digital portal to make helpline requests. The digital portal makes it easier for members to identify and contact the appropriate technical team, which will help provide a faster response time. It replaces the process of submitting queries by email. The new digital portal also offers greater security and data protection.

The Scottish Government have issued a consultation on proposed changes to Protected Trust Deeds. Details of the proposals are available in an icas.com article. The consultation closes on 19 April 2019.

Commodity Solution Services Ltd (in Liquidation) v First Scottish Searching Services Ltd The Sheriff Appeal Court has confirmed that property searchers who failed to identify inhibition have a duty of care to the inhibiting creditor.