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Online Register of Insolvencies
User Guide
AiB Online Register of Insolvencies – User Guide Page 1 of 1
v0.1 07/04/2015 12:35
Contents
1 Introduction 3
1.1 Background 3
2 Searching the Register 4
2.1 Navigation 4
2.2 Individual Searches 5
2.3 Individual Searches – Results 7
2.4 Individual Searches - Case Details 9
2.5 Company Searches 10
2.6 Company Searches – Results 11
2.7 Company Searches – Case Details 13
2.8 The use of ‘wild cards’ in searches 14
2.9 ‘Wild cards’ and name searches 14
2.10 ‘Wild cards’ and case reference searches 14
2.11 ‘Wild cards’ and address searches 15
2.12 Duplicate Case Reference Numbers 15
3 XML Download 16
3.1 Log-in process 16
3.2 Download service 18
1 Introduction
1.1 Background
The Register of Insolvencies holds information on all bankruptcies and protected trust deeds that fall under the jurisdiction of the Court of Session. The territorial jurisdiction of the Court of Session extends to the whole of Scotland.
The Register also holds information on all Scottish companies, limited liability partnerships as well as friendly and provident societies that have gone into liquidation or receivership since 1 July 1999. It is important to note that the Register of Insolvencies does not contain information about administrations or voluntary arrangements, or about companies that were dissolved before 1 July 1999. This information is available from Companies House, an executive agency of the Department for The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).
The online Register of Insolvencies (ROI) has been developed with a straightforward user interface to allow searches to be conducted quickly and easily. The purpose of this User Guide is to provide step-by-step instructions on how to search the Online ROI. The information that must be displayed on the Register of Insolvencies is laid down by Schedule 2 of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Regualtions 2014. Searches will return details of all live bankruptcy cases and discharged cases that were awarded bankruptcy within the last 5 years. For protected trust deeds, returns will be made on “live” cases plus those discharged in the past year. Similarly, searches on receiverships or liquidations will return details of “live” cases plus those which ended in the past year.
Following the launch of the redevelopment, the Register will be updated initially at the end of each working day. This will move quickly to regular updates during the day, to be as close to real time updates as possible. When you search the Register, the information returned is the very latest available at the time that you search the Register.
The Register of Insolvencies does not hold information about approved Debt Payment Programmes under the Debt Arrangement Scheme (DAS). For information and access to the DAS Register users should click here.
Access to the ROI is free of charge. A commercial daily data download service is also available. For information please contact the RoI enquiry team.
2 Searching the Register
Users can now search the Register without having to create an account. Users should note that the address details held on the Register are those recorded at the date of bankruptcy, the date at which a moratorium is registered or the date when a Protected Trust Deed is granted.
2.1 Navigation
You can access the search facility from the menu system or from the quick links on the home page.
The Public Search has two options: to search individual moratoriums, bankruptcies and protected trust deeds or insolvent companies. You can access each search from the public search menu or from the quick links.
2.2 Individual Searches
You can search the Register by providing information in any of the fields in the search facility. There is no minimum number of fields that need to be completed to carry out a search. Please note that using a single field search will return a far broader range of records, making it more difficult to pinpoint an individual case.
If you are searching for older cases that were registered before May 2008, please see 2.12 Duplicate Case Reference Numbers for more advice.
On the lower half of the page, you can refine your search by providing a start and/or end dates for the case type that you are searching:
You can also sort the results returned by case reference ascending or descending and by surname ascending or descending.
Please note that case reference numbers are issued sequentially in all insolvency cases. Sorting the results by case reference ascending means, in effect, your results will be displayed in date order from the oldest case to the latest. Alternatively you can display the results from the most recent case to earliest if you select case reference descending.
2.3 Individual Searches – Results
Your search results are presented, in order, with a summary of the number of different case types returned at the top of the page.
You can select and view each individual record using the link on the Case Reference Number field.
You can change the number of results that are displayed on each page by selecting either 3, 50, 100 or 500. The default is 50 results per page. You can navigate between pages of results using the page number selector.
You can refine your original search by selecting the Search Criteria button and adjusting any fields or values you entered originally. You can then rerun your search and your results will be displayed below.
2.4 Individual Searches - Case Details
The individual case details page presents all the case information recorded on the Register for that case.
At the bottom of the screen, you have the option to return to your search results or print the record you are viewing. Your previous search is retained by the Register and displayed on your return to the search page, allowing you to examine numerous records in your search without having to rerun the search each time.
2.5 Company Searches
You can search the Register by providing information in the company number or name field or the case reference field in the search facility. Please note that by using partial company names or numbers will return a far broader range of records, making it more difficult to pinpoint an individual case.
You can refine your results by providing a start and/or end date for when the case was uploaded to the Register.
You can also sort the results returned by case reference ascending or descending and by surname ascending or descending.
Please note that case reference numbers are issued sequentially in all insolvency cases. Sorting the results by case reference ascending means, in effect, your results will be displayed in date order from the oldest case to the latest. Alternatively you can display the results from the most recent case to earliest if you select case reference descending.
2.6 Company Searches – Results
Your search results are presented, in order, with a summary of the number of different case types returned at the top of the page.
You can select and view each individual record using the link on the Company Number field.
You can change the number of results that are displayed on each page by selecting either 3, 50, 100 or 500. The default is 50 results per page. You can navigate between pages of results using the page number selector.
You can refine your original search by selecting the Search Criteria button and adjusting any fields or values you entered originally. You can then rerun your search and your results will be displayed below.
2.7 Company Searches – Case Details
The individual case details presents all the case information recorded on the Register for that case.
At the bottom of the screen, you have the option to return to your search results or print the record you are viewing. Your previous search is retained by the Register and displayed on your return to the search page, allowing you to examine numerous records in your search without having to rerun the search each time.
2.8 The use of ‘wild cards’ in searches
In the previous versions of the Register, you were able to add ‘*’ at the start, end or middle of words as a ‘wild card’, which would return more records than your normal search, for example, searching ‘M*cdonald’ would return results for both McDonald and MacDonald. This version of the Register will not accept wild card searches in this format, however the Register does use automatic wild cards in every field, at the start and end of your search criteria, to assist you in searching.
2.9 ‘Wild cards’ and name searches
All name searches are given a wild card at the start and end of the word you are searching. In the example in 2.8 above, if you were searching for McDonald but wanted your search to return cases with the surname MacDonald, you only have to enter “Donald”, as the automatic wild cards will return both versions of the surname. Similarly, searching the surname ‘Andrew’ will return the surnames McAndrew and Andrews.
2.10 ‘Wild cards’ and case reference searches
Case Reference numbers are prefixed by the year of registration. Searches can be narrowed by year without needing to use a wild card in the ‘Case Reference’ field. For example, a search using only ‘2011’ will return all the cases from 2011. Please note that searches in the Case Reference field that are truncated dates, eg searching ‘14’ for cases from 2014, will return cases that have ‘14’ anywhere in their reference number, eg ‘2008/114532’. If you are searching for older cases that were registered before May 2008, please see 2.12 Duplicate Case Reference Numbers for more advice.
2.11 ‘Wild cards’ and address searches
The automatic wild cards that are added at the beginning and end of all fields can be used to assist searches where common street names may be spelled differently. Address searches are best carried out without including the word “street”, “avenue”, “road”, etc, as the automatic wild card will return all variations of the address.
Part post codes can be searched using the automatic wild card. For example, if you search ‘G14’ in the post code the search will return all records with a post code starting with G14. Please note that the automatic wild cards that are added to all searches mean these searches will also return post codes starting with DG14.
2.12 Duplicate Case Reference Numbers
For cases registered before May 2008, it was possible for a bankruptcy, protected trust deed, receivership or liquidation case to have an identical case reference number. Company receiverships or liquidation searches are carried out separately from bankruptcies and trust deeds, which removes any issue for these cases. Bankruptcies and protected trust deeds share a common register and search facility and to differentiate between the two types of cases, a ‘T’ suffix was added to all protected trust deeds registered before May 2008. For example, a protected trust deed case reference of ‘2007/10003’ became ‘2007/10003/T’.
The Register search facility now returns the number of cases that have been recorded of each case type in your results (see 2.3 or 2.6 above for more information and an example), however, the ‘T’ suffix has been retained on the protected trust deed case reference numbers before May 2008.
The automatic wild card that is added to all search criteria means that, where appropriate, a reference number that has the ‘T’ suffix will be returned when you search without the ‘T’ suffix.
All cases registered after May 2008 have been allocated individual and unique reference numbers regardless of the insolvency product used.
3 XML Download
AiB currently provide a commercial subscription download service for users of the Register. As part of that service, users are issued with a log-in and password that permits access to the download, in .xml format.
3.1 Log-in process
As a current subscriber you will be issued with a new user name and password for the Register, immediately after the launch of the redesigned Register on 01 April 2015.
From the home page, click the ‘Log in’ link to start the process.
This will bring you to the Log In screen, where you should enter the username and password you have been issued by AiB.
This will bring you to the user dashboard. The dashboard is only available to signed in users.
You can view your own user details via the ‘Maintenance’ menu item.
On this screen, importantly you will be able to see the date that your current subscription will end.
3.2 Download service
To access the xml download, click on the ‘Download’ menu item to access the download page.
Please note that if your subscription has ended, you will not be able to access the download page and an error message will be presented, reminding you that your subscription has expired.
The download page has a single function button that will download the latest available xml file to your computer.
You will receive a message at the bottom of the screen asking if you want to save or save as (i.e. save and rename/file differently from the automatic file path).
Once downloaded, you can import, examine and reorder the results in Excel or other similar data products.
Once you have completed your download, you can log out of the system again, from the signed in menu item.
AiB Online Register of Insolvencies – User Guide Page 19 of 19
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