FOI release

FOI21/22-188 - Disaggregated Company insolvency data

Updated 14 July 2022

Our ref: FOI21/22-188

Date: 20th April 2022

Dear

1. Re: Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Request

Thank you for your email of 17th March 2022, in which you requested from the Insolvency Service company insolvency data disaggregated at the postcode or MSOA level for the period 2011 to 2021.

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. The dataset is attached as a CSV file at Annex A.

Note that there are known accuracy issues with company address information held. Therefore, some caution needs to be taken when interpreting the accompanying dataset at Annex A.

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. For these cases, the postcode provided may not accurately reflect the location of the company’s registered office.

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

Data on companies that have entered compulsory liquidation in England & Wales 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/.

Companies with multiple insolvency procedures are included multiple times to give a full record of all registered insolvencies. This means that there are some duplicate company numbers. Administrations which have directly resulted in a creditors’ voluntary liquidation are included only as administrations. Similar information for administrations converting to a compulsory liquidation or to a company voluntary arrangement is not available so these are counted as both insolvency procedures.

The number of compulsory liquidations in Northern Ireland presented here may not align with numbers in the published Quarterly Insolvency Statistics. This is because these insolvencies presented here are obtained from data provided by Companies House, whereas numbers in the published statistics are received in aggregate form from the Department for the Economy. Cases may also not align with information published separately by Companies House, or with data extracted from the Gazette. Further information on why numbers may not align can be found in the Quarterly and Monthly Insolvency Statistics Methodology and Quality document.

The variables provided in Annex A are:

• • Company number
• • Company name
• • Postcode
• • Register location (England/Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland)
• • Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) 2007 code
• • Insolvency type
• • Company age (years) – this is not available for our compulsory liquidation data in England & Wales
• • Insolvency registration period at Companies House (or insolvency start date in the case of compulsory liquidations in England & Wales). Periods are calendar quarters, so 2011Q1 means dates between 1st January 2011 and 31st March 2011.

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.

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

Insolvency Service data held for compulsory liquidations do not include address 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.

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