United Kingdom Statutory interest on judgment debts (Judgments Act rate)
United Kingdom Statutory interest on judgment debts (Judgments Act rate) is 8 percent, in force since 1 Apr 1993. Last checked against the official source on 10 Aug 2026.
The United Kingdom's general statutory interest rate: a fixed 8% per annum on judgment debts under section 17 of the Judgments Act 1838, unchanged since 1 April 1993 and matched by the judicial rate in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
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| Current value | 8 percent |
|---|---|
| In force from | 1993-04-01 |
| Official source | Judgments Act 1838 s. 17(1): 'Every judgment debt shall carry interest at the rate of 8 pounds per centum per annum from such time as shall be prescribed by rules of court until the same shall be satisfied, and such interest may be levied under a writ of execution on such judgment'; the 8% figure was substituted by the Judgment Debts (Rate of Interest) Order 1993 (S.I. 1993/564), made under s. 44 of the Administration of Justice Act 1970, in force 1 April 1993 |
| Last verified | 2026-08-10 |
| Verification | primary — No verification limitation recorded — read from the official source cited. |
| Provenance | source fingerprint |
What this value means
SCOPE — READ BEFORE USING: the United Kingdom has no general statutory interest rate that a creditor can claim on an ordinary unpaid civil debt. The 8% figure is the JUDGMENT rate: it attaches once a court has given judgment for a sum of money, and runs until the judgment is satisfied. Interest for the period BEFORE judgment is discretionary, awarded by the court under s. 35A of the Senior Courts Act 1981 (High Court) or s. 69 of the County Courts Act 1984, at whatever rate the court thinks fit. Simple interest only — the Judgments Act rate does not compound. Fixed since 1 April 1993; the rate can be changed only by a further order under s. 44 of the Administration of Justice Act 1970, and none has been made in over thirty years. THREE TRAPS: (1) County Court judgments carry the 8% only where the judgment is for £5,000 or more, under the County Courts (Interest on Judgment Debts) Order 1991, and judgments on regulated consumer-credit agreements are excluded altogether — a small County Court judgment carries no statutory interest at all. (2) Rules of court may disallow all or part of the interest (s. 17(2)). (3) The 8% is a UK-wide coincidence rather than one rule: Scotland's judicial rate of interest, applied under rule 7.7 of the Rules of the Court of Session, has also been 8% since 1993, and Northern Ireland likewise — but each is set separately, and the Scottish Government consulted on replacing the fixed 8% with a variable methodology in a consultation that closed on 28 January 2026, with no successor rate enacted as at this confirmation. Commercial invoices are a separate product: the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 gives a business creditor the Bank of England base rate plus 8 percentage points on qualifying commercial debts, reset each half-year, together with the fixed sum for recovery costs — that regime is served in our late-payment-interest product and is the one to use for an unpaid B2B or B2G invoice.
Get it programmatically
curl https://euroref.dev/v1/gb/statutory-interest
# $0.005 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History: curl https://euroref.dev/v1/gb/statutory-interest/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://euroref.dev/provenance/gb/statutory-interestOther United Kingdom series: Bank of England Bank Rate · Value Added Tax (standard rate) · National Living Wage (statutory minimum, age 21+) · Bank and public holidays 2026 · Consumer Prices Index, annual inflation rate · Corporation Tax (main rate) · Withholding tax rates · Income Tax bands (England, Wales and Northern Ireland) · Statutory social-insurance contributions · Late-payment interest (Late Payment of Commercial Debts Act) · VAT registration threshold
The same figure elsewhere: Austria · Belgium · Bulgaria · Croatia · Cyprus · all 34