FOI release

FOI 163 - Latest data on insolvencies in Brighton & Hove

Updated 17 August 2022

Our ref: FOI20/21-163

Date: 1 February 2021

Re: Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Request

Thank you for your email of 4 January in which you requested from the Insolvency Service:

"Do you have data on insolvencies (by sector is possible) in Brighton & Hove and what is the latest data available? The information is required to assess the impact of covid on the economy in Brighton & Hove."

Your request has been dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).

I can confirm that the agency holds the information that you have requested. I have compiled a summary table to answer to your request using the data held that covers the period Q1 2019 to Q4 2020 (January 2019 to December 2020).

Note that there are known accuracy issues with company address information held. Therefore, some caution needs to be taken when interpreting the information provided in this letter.

In some cases, company address information held by the Insolvency Service may be the registered address of the Insolvency Practitioner (IP), who acts as an office-holder in an insolvency proceeding. Therefore, the information provided in this letter may exclude companies previously registered in Brighton and Hove that were re-registered to an office-holder's address outside of the region. Conversely, companies with an office-holder address registered within Brighton and Hove may be included where the company address was previously outside of the region.

Note that even where the data does accurately represent the registered address of a company, it may not necessarily reflect the location(s) of company activity or operation.

Due to missing values, data held may result in an undercount of companies with a registered address in Brighton and Hove that have entered into compulsory liquidation.

Further details on the above caveats can be found under 'Section 16 (Advice and Assistance)' at the end of this letter.

Given the caveats, Table 1 provides a summary of the estimated numbers of companies that entered insolvency between Q1 2019 and Q4 2020 with a registered address in Brighton and Hove, by industry.

Table 1: Estimated number of company insolvencies by industry (SIC 2007) where company's registered office was in Brighton and Hove p,1,2,3

		2019 Q1	2019 Q2	2019 Q3	2019 Q4	2020 Q1	2020 Q2	2020 Q3	2020 Q4
Total		54	54	56	50	45	44	38	29
A	Agriculture, forestry and fishing	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
B	Mining and quarrying	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
C	Manufacturing	2	5	5	2	1	10	5	1
D	Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
E	Water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
F	Construction	6	7	7	6	11	7	6	4
G	Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles	15	7	7	7	4	4	5	4
H	Transportation and storage	2	1	1	1	1	2	0	1
I	Accommodation and food service activities	3	8	8	6	6	1	5	2
J	Information and communication	4	2	2	3	2	2	2	6
K	Financial and insurance activities	0	3	3	2	1	1	3	1
L	Real estate activities	1	3	3	1	2	1	0	1
M	Professional, scientific and technical activities	3	7	7	5	0	4	4	1
N	Administrative and support service activities	4	6	6	9	9	4	3	4
O	Public administration and defence; compulsory social security	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
P	Education	0	1	1	1	0	1	1	2
Q	Human health and social work activities	0	1	1	2	1	2	1	1
R	Arts, entertainment and recreation	2	1	1	0	2	1	1	0
S	Other service activities	4	2	2	1	4	2	1	1
T	Activities of households as employers; undifferentiated good-and service-producing activities of households for own use	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
U	Activities of extraterritorial organisations and bodies	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
V	All others	5	0	0	3	0	1	1	0
NT	Non-trading and dormant companies	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
UNK	Unknown SIC Code	3	0	2	0	0	1	0	0

Sources: Companies House; Insolvency Service

p. Figures are provisional

1. Includes companies with a registered postcode in Brighton and Hove as held by Companies House.

2. Industry breakdowns are presented in line with the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC 2007). Further information on the SIC 2007 can be found on the Office for National Statistics' website: https://www.ons.gov.uk/methodology/classificationsandstandards/ukstandardindustrialclassificationofeconomicactivities/uksic2007

3. Excludes administrations which have resulted in a Creditors' Voluntary Liquidation during these calendar months.

Under section 16 of the Act (Advice and Assistance) you may find it useful to note:

Data on companies that have entered compulsory liquidation are sourced from the Insolvency Service administrative systems.

Companies House data are used as the source of reporting on all other company insolvencies (creditors' voluntary liquidations, administrations, company voluntary arrangements and receivership appointments). Companies House carries out its statutory functions of maintaining the registry of corporate bodies that are regulated by the Companies Act 2006. Note that Companies House does not monitor all business types (e.g. sole traders) and for information on these and other business types you may wish to contact the Office of National Statistics: https://www.ons.gov.uk/.

Caveats to note when interpreting information provided in this letter

Company address information reflects the registered address filed at Companies House. In some cases, the company’s registered address is updated post-insolvency to that of the office-holder. If a company address is changed prior to Companies House notifying the Insolvency Service of an insolvency filing, the address held by the Insolvency Service will be incorrect as it will reflect the office-holder's address, not the company address.

Insolvency Service data held for compulsory liquidations do not include address and industry information, so data are linked on a quarterly basis with Companies House data to return these values. Datasets are linked using the Company Registered Number (CRN). In some cases, the CRN is unknown or has been manually entered incorrectly on to the Insolvency Service administrative system. Therefore, no link can be made between datasets for these cases, resulting in a potential undercount of companies with a registered address in the location(s) of interest that have entered into compulsory liquidation.

Companies are assigned to a sector (or industry) in line with the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC 2007) of economic activities1 at time of registration at Companies House. However, a company may have changed its primary business since first registration, or the industry sector might be recorded as that of its holding company and appear under “activities of holding companies” within the Business.

The Insolvency Service publishes quarterly company insolvency National Statistics on the gov.uk website:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/insolvency-service-official-statistics.

This quarterly series provides more granular summaries of company insolvencies by industry. Company location information is not routinely published within this series since the accuracy of the company address information held by the Insolvency Service does not meet the National Statistics quality standards.

If you are not satisfied with the response we have provided you and would like us to reconsider our decision by way of an internal review (IR), please contact our Information Rights Team at foi@insolvency.gov.uk or by post at:

Information Rights Team
The Insolvency Service
3rd Floor
Cannon House
18 Priory Queensway
Birmingham
B4 6FD
United Kingdom

You also have the right to contact the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) if you wish for them to investigate any complaint you may have regarding our handling of your request. However, please note that the ICO is likely to expect an IR to have been completed in the first instance.

Yours sincerely,

Information Rights Team

The Insolvency Service

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Official receivers and the Adjudicator are Data Controllers in respect of personal data processed by the Insolvency Service. For the details about how personal data is processed by the agency, please see the full Insolvency Service Personal Information Charter here: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/insolvency-service/about/personal-information-charter