FOI release

FOI21/22-170 - Compensation schemes run by Insolvency Service

Updated 14 July 2022

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Our ref: FOI21/22-170

Date: 14 March 2022

Dear

Re: Freedom of Information Act 2000

Thank you for your email of 23 February in which you requested from the Insolvency Service:

  1. Does the Insolvency Service operate a compensation scheme for people who suffer loses due the Insolvency Service interfering/dealing with the assets of third parties as if they were the assets of a company in liquidation or those of a bankrupt?
  2. Does the Insolvency Service run any other type of compensation scheme?
  3. Do you have any information on how claims against the Insolvency Service or an Official Receiver are handled by the Insolvency Service?
  4. Do you have any information your what kinds of complaints your complaints procedure deals with?

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

I can confirm the agency holds the information that you have requested and I have provided answers to your questions below/ and it is attached to this email

  1. Does the Insolvency Service operate a compensation scheme for people who suffer loses due the Insolvency Service interfering/dealing with the assets of third parties as if they were the assets of a company in liquidation or those of a bankrupt?

Any recompense to proven creditors in a bankruptcy / liquidation case would be dealt with as part of the asset realisation and dividend payment process. The Insolvency Service makes some payments that result from complaints but does not run a specific compensation scheme.

  1. Does the Insolvency Service run any other type of compensation scheme?

In HM Treasury publication Managing Public Money compensation payments are a specific type of special payment and are defined as:

“Compensation payments are made to provide redress for personal injuries (except for payments under the Civil Service Injury Benefits Scheme), traffic accidents, damage to property etc, suffered by civil servants or others. They include other payments to those in the public service outside statutory schemes or outside contracts”

The agency has no delegated authority to make these payments and would need to seek approval from BEIS.

  1. Do you have any information on how claims against the Insolvency Service or an Official Receiver are handled by the Insolvency Service?

A committee will consider claims made against the Official Receiver or Redundancy Payments Service if there has been an established error or omission. This committee makes recommendations if any payments should be made because of these complaints.

Further information about how our complaints process works can be found here.

  1. Do you have any information your what kinds of complaints your complaints procedure deals with?

Our complaints procedure is published here online and the Insolvency Service is not obliged to provide you with a separate copy of information it holds where that information is reasonably accessible to the applicant. This information is therefore exempt from disclosure under S21 of the FOIA.

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 Commissioners 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.

Kind regards

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

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