Repossession orders in Scotland have soared by over a third within the last year, according to the Scottish National Party, who obtained the statistics from the Scottish Executive.

The recent figures reveal that 6,285 repossession decrees were disposed of in 2005, up 35% on 2004.

Bernard Clarke, of the Council of Mortgage Lenders, said: "We would expect the number of repossessions to rise in Scotland, as it has done in England and Wales. But there is a big difference between the granting of an order and actual repossession.

"Sometimes the situation is sorted out by the time the lender has gone to court, and sometimes the order is never actually taken up by the lender."