FOI release

FOI22/23-121 - Insolvency by Clothing SIC codes

Updated 30 May 2023

Our ref: FOI22/23-121

Date: 18 January 2023

Re: Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Request

Thank you for your email of 5th January 2023 in which you requested from the Insolvency Service:

I was hoping I might be able to request un update to the Annex data you sent over to me at the end of last year. As I was delayed in getting our paper prepared it would be great now to get the numbers for 2022. Would you be able to send me those numbers for the 5 SIC categories I specified?

I’m guessing the 4th quarter 2022 figures are possibly not yet available. If they are going to be a while I would be grateful for the first three quarters so that I can make a trend estimate.

This was a follow-up to your email of 20th July 2022, in which you asked:

“I am writing a white paper for our company about digital transformation in the UK clothing/apparel sectors. In order to support this work I would like to present the number of insolvencies experienced by a number of related sectors over time. The sectors I am examining are (based on 2007 SIC codes) as follows:

14 - manufacture of wearing apparel (comprising 14.1 Manufacture of wearing apparel, except fur apparel; 14.2 Manufacture of articles of fur; 14.3 Manufacture of knitted and crocheted apparel) - aggregate numbers. I don’t require the three specific sub-sectors as separate series

15  - manufacture of leather and related products (comprising 15.1 Tanning and dressing of leather etc; 15.2 Manufacture of footwear) I don’t require the two specific sub-sectors as separate series

46.42 - wholesale of clothing or footwear

47.71 - retail sale of clothing in specialised stores

47.72 - retail of footwear + leather goods in specialised stores

Ideally I would like a series for each of the 5 SIC codes listed above from 2007 to 2021, as I’m trying to show the increase in insolvencies during recessionary periods.”

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. I have provided two tables at Annex A. Table 1 shows the number of company insolvencies for 2 Digit SIC codes 14 and 15 for England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland from 2007 to 2022 by quarter. Table 2 contains the number of company insolvencies for 4 digit SIC codes 4642 and 4772 for England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland from 2007 to 2022 by calendar year quarter. Data for Q4 (September to December) 2022 are not yet available.

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

Compulsory liquidations in England and Wales are sourced from a live administration system managed by the Insolvency Service. The registration date for these is the court order date. All other insolvency procedures are sourced from Companies House, with the registration date based on the date that an insolvency was registered at Companies House. Industry breakdowns have been presented in line with the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC 2007). Compulsory liquidations data are recorded at a three-digit group level and not a five-digit class level. Where possible, this administrative data has been matched with Companies House data to produce a five-digit class level industry classification, but in some cases a five-digit class is not attainable. The totals in the four-digit table may therefore be an undercount as these companies without a four- or five-digit SIC code have not been included.

Company insolvency in Northern Ireland and Scotland is governed by separate, though broadly similar, legislation to England and Wales. Numbers of compulsory liquidations in Northern Ireland are sourced from Companies House. This contrasts with the numbers in the published Quarterly and Monthly insolvency statistics, which are sourced from the Department for the Economy. It is therefore possible that a small number of compulsory liquidations have not been included in Annex A. This also apples to England & Wales for years prior to 2010, for which information from Companies House rather than the Insolvency Service has been used.

Industry breakdowns have been presented in line with the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC 2007). Companies are assigned to a sector (or industry) at the 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 industry SIC code for compulsory liquidations in England and Wales is recorded with SIC 2003 codes. To obtain SIC 2007 codes for these, companies are matched against the Companies House register where possible, and SIC data are drawn from this source. Where matching is not possible, the 2003 SIC code has been converted to a 2007 code using a ‘best match’ approach using weighted tables provided by the Office for National Statistics.

Companies with multiple insolvency procedures are included multiple times to give a full record of all registered insolvencies. 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.