FOI release

FOI 109: HR1 data 2006-2020

Updated 15 February 2021

By email

Our ref: FOI20/21-109

Date: 10 November 2020

Re: Freedom of Information Act 2000

Thank you for your email of 13 October 2020 in which you requested the following from the Insolvency Service:

“Please can you send me the Insolvency Service's full dataset showing the number of HR1 Advance Notices of Redundancy received, broken down by month, and going back as far as possible.

Please also include the aggregate number of positions mentioned as at risk of redundancy in each month.

Please also tell me at which date of the month the full figures for the previous month/s become available to be requested.”

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 the requested information is included in the tables in the annexe enclosed with this letter. 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.

Complete data regarding the volume of HR1 forms received does not become available on a set day and differs, depending on how many have been received in the preceding month.

Please be aware that all FOI responses are now published on our website and are available to view at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/insolvency-service-foi-responses-october-to-december-2020.

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

Kiera Bain

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 FOI20/21-109

Table 1: The number of HR1 advance notice of redundancy forms for every individual month going back to January 2006

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
2006 320 363 282 191 279 277 244 241 200 254 237 203
2007 276 226 264 229 242 205 191 216 183 236 212 162
2008 283 265 228 256 289 233 322 202 304 431 571 401
2009 612 433 549 417 361 346 581 298 351 323 299 226
2010 327 343 387 313 246 295 402 328 338 319 392 310
2011 472 426 486 308 333 423 371 276 346 288 430 259
2012 309 381 317 253 318 275 264 218 267 351 344 245
2013 347 306 327 281 276 233 241 167 185 230 235 139
2014 265 224 236 190 246 229 190 180 181 213 208 144
2015 236 263 397 294 400 326 303 279 306 398 391 279
2016 418 469 379 432 370 388 385 430 271 350 322 207
2017 393 292 485 238 352 280 309 268 278 303 346 155
2018 369 676 389 297 353 270 297 318 307 336 302 185
2019 365 351 227 303 398 345 286 214 303 343 305 196
2020 372 329 485 447 871 1,888 1,784 966 1,734      

Table 2: The aggregate number of proposed dismissals for every individual month going back to January 2006

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
2006 26,177 21,917 20,137 13,708 26,341 18,701 16,584 23,971 20,003 22,044 45,802 13,511
2007 19,311 16,938 61,156 16,357 16,723 21,481 15,267 53,477 29,880 45,326 15,742 21,088
2008 21,369 15,899 28,908 24,398 20,871 14,134 31,620 12,719 23,075 30,463 30,399 28,425
2009 56,727 31,732 89,616 26,480 26,495 51,815 45,447 36,132 32,963 21,453 51,251 33,588
2010 24,320 27,514 35,138 33,039 25,906 52,785 49,064 29,644 52,667 46,174 83,066 70,002
2011 40,291 38,032 47,522 42,621 42,301 59,271 27,962 19,112 44,544 37,517 44,108 29,014
2012 34,677 32,906 30,062 30,275 26,090 29,100 28,645 16,976 30,204 59,724 26,629 23,653
2013 30,333 23,007 23,115 19,820 16,743 20,696 18,217 9,274 20,935 25,826 30,500 16,259
2014 18,536 20,173 22,930 11,454 20,783 20,713 9,299 9,200 15,163 13,225 20,321 12,541
2015 12,176 13,974 35,210 27,625 27,093 24,585 22,504 36,642 27,061 43,979 29,192 22,100
2016 44,612 67,292 27,136 45,246 34,050 34,781 31,692 24,467 32,333 37,605 25,677 16,332
2017 29,332 23,593 28,578 19,543 37,364 19,518 21,370 34,790 20,258 21,234 29,026 23,171
2018 38,752 36,801 156,723 22,837 32,379 25,486 18,882 22,678 19,461 26,968 25,064 16,154
2019 28,138 32,189 41,626 85,913 36,304 24,024 21,456 22,642 26,716 23,882 27,820 16,733
2020 29,884 28,674 44,465 62,443 73,331 155,739 149,688 58,056 82,029