Month: April 2007

The Small Claims (Scotland) Amendment Order 2007 (SSI 2007/496 at http://www.opsi.gov.uk/legislation/scotland/ssi2007/20070496.htm ), the statutory instrument increasing the small claims limit (referred to No 678) has now been passed.  It increases the small claims limit to £3,000, and amends the expenses rules providing that where the value of the claim is £1500 or less, expenses of up to £150 can be awarded, and where the value of the claim is greater than £1500, the sheriff may award expenses up to 10% of the value of the claim.  The new limit will come into force from 14 January 2008.

The Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform announced on 7th November 2007 that the provisions relating to registration of charges in the Companies Act 2006 will not come into force until October 2009.   As matters currently stand the Companies Act 2006 will provide a registration regime requiring floating charges to be registered with the Registrar of Companies 21 days after execution (which is treated as the date of creation for that Act), and the Bankruptcy and Diligence etc (Scotland) Act 2007 (also not yet in force) provides that a floating charge is not created until it is registered in a new Register of Floating Charges (which will be administered by the Registers of Scotland). 

Two Acts requiring differing dates for registration, with different dates of creation under each Act, and different acts of registration required for each opens up possibilities for negligence.  These should be alleviated by section 893, which will allow statutory instruments to provide that registration in the Register of Floating Charges is deemed registration in the Companies register.  Section 893 will also be affected by the delay in implementation, and it is likely that pending this the relevant parts of the Bankruptcy and Diligence etc (Scotland) Act 2007 will be delayed (although no announcement has been made as yet by the Scottish Government).