FOI release

FOI 127: HR1 data for May – October 2020 and 2021 broken down for England, Wales and Scotland

Updated 15 February 2021

Our ref: FOI20/21-127

Date: 7 December 2020

Dear ,

Re: Freedom of Information Act 2000

Thank you for your email of 9 November 2020 in which you requested the following from the Insolvency Service:

"Separate figures for each of England, Wales and Scotland for:

The number of HR1 forms filed;

The aggregate number of positions at risk;

For each of the months of May, June, July, August, September, and October 2020;

And the months of May, June, July, August, September, and October 2019."

I can confirm the agency holds the information that you have requested, and the requested information is included in the tables in the annexe attached to this email. Although the Insolvency Service does not publish these figures, they have been released under previous Freedom of Information requests.

Please note that employers are only required to file a Form HR1 where they are "proposing" to dismiss 20 or more employees at a single "establishment".

"Propose" and "establishment" have distinct meanings in this context.

The aggregate number could include proposed dismissals due to insolvency, restructuring of a solvent/continuing business, changes to terms and conditions, proposed relocation of employees etc.

It should also be noted that a proposal to make a given number of dismissals does not necessarily result in all or any of the proposed dismissals occurring.

On each HR1 form it is indicated that the number of possible redundancies will take place at either, the establishment address, the employer address or the employer contact address.

• Where redundancies are to take place solely at the establishment address, this is the post code we have used to categorise the country.
• Where redundancies are to take place solely at the employer address, this is the post code we have used to categorise the country.
• Where redundancies are to take place solely at the employer contact address, this is the post code we have used to categorise the country.

Where a HR1 record does not fall into any of the above categories, and there are proposed redundancies at more than one of the addresses, these forms have been categorised into the 'Unknown/Other' column on the attached table. There are also a small number of forms containing post codes from Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man and these also fall into this category.

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 in regards to 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

Redundancy Payments Service

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

Annexe to FOI 20/21-127

Table 1: Number of HR1 forms received in England, Scotland and Wales

May to October 2019 and May to October 2020

		England	Scotland	Wales	Unknown / Other	Total
2019	May	280	30	10	75	395
	June	250	15	10	65	345
	July	185	15	10	70	285
	August	145	10	10	50	215
	September	205	15	*	75	300
	October	200	20	10	110	340
2020	May	570	70	25	195	860
	June	1,320	145	40	365	1,875
	July	1,265	115	50	335	1,760
	August	740	55	25	140	955
	September	1,415	115	75	115	1,725
	October	695	60	25	60	840
2019	May to October Total	1,265	105	55	450	1,870
2020	May to October Total	6,010	560	240	1,210	8,020

Source: Insolvency Service

* Indicates a non-zero number less than 5, supressed for statistical disclosure control purposes

1. Numbers greater than 5 have been rounded to the nearest 5 for statistical disclosure control purposes.

2. Aggregates may not sum to totals due to rounding

Table 2: Number of possible redundancies in England, Scotland and Wales

May to October 2019 and May to October 2020

		England	Scotland	Wales	Unknown / Other	Total
2019	May	22,700	3,700	400	8,300	35,200
	June	16,100	800	1,000	6,000	23,900
	July	12,900	1,500	1,000	6,000	21,400
	August	7,500	1,000	1,000	13,000	22,600
	September	17,400	200	200	8,300	26,600
	October	12,300	1,300	700	9,400	23,800
2020	May	43,100	3,600	2,900	23,600	73,300
	June	100,100	8,300	2,600	44,600	155,600
	July	80,000	6,200	4,400	58,700	149,300
	August	40,600	2,900	1,100	13,100	57,700
	September	69,200	4,600	3,200	4,700	81,700
	October	37,400	3,100	1,300	9,300	51,200
2019	May to October Total	88,900	9,100	4,400	51,100	153,500
2020	May to October Total	370,500	28,700	15,600	153,900	568,700

Source: Insolvency Service

1. Numbers greater than 100 have been rounded to the nearest 100 for statistical disclosure control purposes.

2. Aggregates may not sum to totals due to rounding