Statistics showing insolvencies in the third quarter of 2011 were published on 4th November by the Insolvency Service. 

COMPANY INSOLVENCIES

There were 4,242 compulsory liquidations and creditors’ voluntary liquidations in total in England and Wales in the third quarter of 2011 (on a seasonally adjusted basis).  This was an increase of 0.1% on the previous quarter and an increase of 6.5% on the same period a year ago.

This was made up of 1,203 compulsory liquidations (which are down 6.6% on the previous quarter and up 5.7% on the corresponding quarter of the previous year), and 3,039 creditors voluntary liquidations (which are up 3.1% on the previous quarter and up 6.8% on the corresponding quarter of the previous year).

Table I. Company Liquidations in England and Wales (seasonally adjusted) ¹

Source: Insolvency Service and Companies House
p = provisional, r = revised
¹ Longer series back to 2001 are presented in the accompanying detailed tables.
² Where the creditors’ voluntary liquidation is the first insolvency procedure entered into (see Notes to Editors).

Additionally, there were 1,253 other corporate insolvencies in the third quarter of 2011 (not seasonally adjusted) comprising 374 receiverships, 673 administrations and 206 company voluntary arrangements.  In total these represented a increase of 10.0% on the same period a year ago

Table II. Other Corporate Insolvencies in England and Wales (not seasonally adjusted) ¹

Source: Companies House
p = provisional,

¹ Longer series back to 2001 are presented in the accompanying detailed tables.
² Includes Law of Property Act receivers (see “Notes to Editors” paragraph 21).
³ Includes Administrator Appointments.

Note: The figures in Table II are not seasonally adjusted and are not, therefore, on the same basis as the headline figures in Table I.  The accompanying detailed tables also include the non-seasonally adjusted series for corporate liquidations.

INDIVIDUAL INSOLVENCIES (not seasonally adjusted - see "Notes to Editors" paragraph 11)

There were 30,219 individual insolvencies in England and Wales in the third quarter of 2011. This was a decrease of 11.0% on the same period a year ago.

This was made up of 9,567 bankruptcies (which were down 31.2% on the corresponding quarter of the previous year), 13,048 Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs), (which were up 0.7% on the corresponding quarter of the previous year) and 7,604 Debt Relief Orders (DROs),  (which were up 7.6% on the corresponding quarter of the previous year and represent the highest quarterly total since their introduction). In April 2011 a change was introduced to Debt Relief Order legislation to allow those who have built up value in a pension scheme to apply for debt relief under these provisions; this will have increased the overall numbers of those eligible to apply for a Debt Relief Order, and is also expected to have had some impact on the numbers of bankruptcy orders.

                  Total individual insolvencies for Q2 2009 onwards include Debt Relief Orders, which came into force on 6 April 2009

In the third quarter of 2011, 79.0% of bankruptcies were made on the petition of the debtor, down from 83.0% in the previous quarter.  The percentage of bankruptcy orders involving trading debts (self-employed bankruptcies) was 20.3% in the second quarter of 2011 (third quarter 2011 figures for trading-related bankruptcies are not yet available), similar to the previous quarter, but noticeably higher than three to four years ago.  The falling total number of bankruptcies since 2009 is mainly due to lower numbers of consumer bankruptcy cases, which will have been more directly impacted by the introduction of DROs in April 2009.

Table III. Individual Insolvencies in England and Wales (not seasonally adjusted) ¹

Source: Insolvency Service
p = provisional, r = revised
¹Longer series back to 2001 are presented in the accompanying detailed tables, as are seasonally adjusted figures for individual voluntary arrangements (and for bankruptcy orders up to Q1 2009 only)

COMPANY LIQUIDATION AND INDIVIDUAL INSOLVENCY RATES: LONGER-TERM PERSPECTIVE

In the twelve months ending Q3 2011, approximately 1 in 138 active companies (or 0.7% of all active registered companies) went into liquidation similar to the previous quarter (ehre one in 139 companies went into liquidation). As figure 3 shows, the liquidation rate remains low compared to a peak of 2.6% in 1993, and the average of 1.2% seen over the last 25 years. It should be noted that the number of active companies has changed considerably over this period; there were 2.3 million active registered companies in Q3 2011; this compares with only about 900,000 in the early 1990s and less than 800,000 in 1986.

In the twelve months ending Q3 2011, approximately 1 in 361 people became insolvent. This is down from 1 in 349 in the previous quarter.  As Figure 3 shows, the individual insolvency rate has displayed a steeply upward path (with some fluctuations) since 2004 through to the second quarter of 2010 and is currently still elevated compared to the annual average of 1 in 1,655 (0.1%) people seen over the last 25 years.

Source: Insolvency Service, Companies House and the Office for National Statistics
The company liquidation rate is calculated from company liquidations in the latest twelve month period divided by the average number of companies in that period.　 The individual insolvency rate is calculated from the total number of new bankruptcies, IVAs and DROs in the latest twelve month period divided by the average estimated adult (18+) population of England & Wales

INSOLVENCIES IN SCOTLAND AND NORTHERN IRELAND

The following tables present recent trends in insolvencies in Scotland and Northern Ireland, complementing those for England and Wales above (longer series back to 2001 are presented in the accompanying detailed tables).

Table IV. Insolvencies in Scotland (not seasonally adjusted)

p = provisional,  r = revised
¹ Source: Companies House
² Including those companies which had previously been in administration or other insolvency procedure
³ Source: Accountant in Bankruptcy (AiB). Latest Release: AiB Quarterly Statistics - Q2 2011/12
⁴ The sequestration figures include LILA (Low Income, Low Assets) cases.  These were introduced as a new route into bankruptcy under the Bankruptcy and Diligence etc (Scotland) Act 2007, wef 1 April 2008.
⁵ 2011/12 individual insolvency figures for Scotland remain provisional pending final validation by AiB

Table V. Insolvencies in Northern Ireland (not seasonally adjusted)

¹ Source: Department for Enterprise, Trade and Investment, Northern Ireland (DETINI)
² Source: Companies House

³ Source: Debt Relief Orders (DROs) came into effect on 30 June 2011 in Northern Ireland as an alternative route into personal insolvency. See "Notes to Editors" paragraph 23.
p = provisional

: = not applicable

http://www.insolvencydirect.bis.gov.uk/otherinformation/statistics/201108/index.htm