FOI21/22-051 – DRO’s granted, revoked and successfully completed in years 2018/2019, 2019/2020 and 2020/2021
Published 27 October 2021
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Our ref: FOI21/22-051
Date: 22 July 2021
Dear
1. Re: Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Request
Thank you for your email of 08 July in which you requested from the Insolvency Service:
“The number of Debt Relief Orders granted in years 2018/2019, 2019/2020 and 2020/2021
The number of Debt Relief Orders revoked in years 2018/2019, 2019/2020 and 2020/2021
The number of Debt Relief Orders successfully completed in years 2018/2019, 2019/2020 and 2020/2021”
Your request has been dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).
I can confirm the agency holds some of the information that you have requested, and I have provided the information held below. The agency does not hold information on the number of DROs completed in each year.
The number of DROs approved (or granted) in each year of interest, by order date. Includes DROs initially approved and later revoked:
| Financial Year | Number of DROS approved |
|---|---|
| 2018-19 | 28,085 |
| 2019-20 | 27,437 |
| 2020-21 | 17,713 |
The number of DROs revoked in each year of interest, by revocation date. Note that they may have been approved in a previous period:
| Financial Year | Number of DROS revoked |
|---|---|
| 2018-19 | 272 |
| 2019-20 | 299 |
| 2020-21 | 180 |
Under section 16 of the Act (Advice and Assistance) you may find it useful to note:
DROs involve a partnership between the Insolvency Service and the professional debt advice sector. The division of responsibility is that approved intermediaries working for competent authorities will assist the debtor in making an application for the DRO to The Insolvency Service via an online application form. The Insolvency Service is the agency responsible for assessing the application, granting the DRO and administering the effects.
The completion date of a DRO is not recorded on the administration system used to capture DRO applications. Therefore, it is not possible to report on the numbers of DROs that have completed in each year of interest. However, DROs typically last 12 months and therefore DROs approved in one financial year will typically complete in the following financial year, though there are some exceptions to this 'rule':
- A revoked DRO will typically not last the full 12 months (and thus may end in the same financial year as approval, dependant on when the DRO was approved); and / or
- A DRO can be extended in length as per s251H of the Insolvency Act 1986, and subsequently end in a later financial year than assumed). However, these cases are small in number. During financial years 2017/18 to 2020/21 there were just 24 DROs extended.
Figures provided in this letter may not match those previously published data from the agency's Quarterly and Monthly statistics, since the data were extracted from a live administrative system on a different date to previously published statistics.
Historical numbers of approved DROs can be found in the agency's published insolvency statistics: Individual Insolvency Statistics Releases - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
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), pleasecontact 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