CPPI Scotland: exam structure and preparation

About CPPI Scotland

The IPA's Certificate of Proficiency in Personal Insolvency for Scotland covers personal insolvency under Scottish law: sequestration, protected trust deeds, the Debt Arrangement Scheme and the non-statutory options in between. It is set at the same standard as CPI and shares some questions with it, but goes further into the advice that chooses between personal solutions.

If you are still choosing a paper, read CPI vs CPPI.

Exam at a glance

The IPA's 2026 Scotland syllabus describes a three-hour paper worth 100 marks. Ten marks come from one-mark multiple-choice questions and 30 from short-form questions worth two or four marks. The other 60 come from 15-mark computational or essay-style questions: two compulsory, then two chosen from three. Regulation, ethics, SIPs and other guidance carry about 20% of the marks, and the law examined is the law in force on 1 January of the exam year.

The exam is online and closed book, sat on your own computer with remote invigilation, in June. According to the IPA's CPPI page, applications reopen in early 2027. In October 2026 that page linked the CPI England and Wales syllabus for both CPPI variants; ask the IPA for the Scottish CPPI syllabus if the link is still wrong.

What does CPPI Scotland test?

Sequestration from the award to discharge and recall: the roles of the interim trustee, the trustee and the Accountant in Bankruptcy, the sequestrated estate, the family home, and offences and restrictions. Protected trust deeds: the advice a debtor must receive before signing, how protected status is obtained, income contributions, variation, default and completion. Alongside these, debt payment programmes under the Debt Arrangement Scheme, Mortgage to Rent and Mortgage to Shared Equity, debt management plans and other informal arrangements.

The syllabus says CPPI gives more weight to non-statutory solutions than CPI does. Its calculations include the statement of affairs, the income and expenditure statement, the Scheme of Division, the estimated outcome statement and a sequestration versus protected trust deed comparison.

What makes CPPI Scotland challenging?

The Scottish framework has its own vocabulary and procedures, and an answer built on English material shows it quickly: a "bankruptcy order" instead of an award of sequestration, "proxies" instead of mandates, an IVA where a protected trust deed was meant. Each option also has to be compared against the debtor's facts; a description on its own earns little.

Checking the new asset registers

The syllabus asks candidates to understand creditors' rights in the Register of Assignations and the Register of Statutory Pledges, and to check these registers when investigating a debtor's assets. Both come from the Moveable Transactions (Scotland) Act 2023, which the syllabus lists.

Set yourself a short question: a debtor who runs a small business has signed a trust deed, and you are investigating the estate. Why would you search these registers, what might an entry mean for the assets available to creditors, and how would it change your report to them? Answer from the Act and your study materials, and note which facts in the case would change your answer. It is a good test of whether your notes reflect the current law rather than an older textbook.