FOI22_23-059 - The number of business insolvencies split by region over the years 2005-2020
Published 20 January 2023
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/insolvency-service-foi-responses-october-to-december-2022/foi22_23-059-the-number-of-business-insolvencies-split-by-region-over-the-years-2005-2020
Our ref: FOI 22/23-059
Re: Freedom of Information Act 2000
Thank you for your email of 07 September 2022 in which you requested from the Insolvency Service:
“I am looking for a dataset that contains the number of business insolvencies split by region e.g., North West, East Midlands, over the years 2005-2020. I could not find this on your website but was wondering if this data was available and whether you could point me in the direction of it or create the dataset for me based on your database?”
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 data has been provided at Annex A. Annex A contains a table of number of insolvencies in each UK region by calendar-year quarter from Q1 2005 to Q4 2020 in the UK.
Note that there are known accuracy issues with company address information held. Therefore, some caution needs to be taken when interpreting the information provided in this letter.
The information the agency holds is the address recorded on the Companies House register on the date the insolvency is registered with Companies House. This address is often the address of the insolvency practitioner (IP), who acts as an office-holder in an insolvency procedure, rather than the location of the company before it became insolvent
Note that even where the data does accurately represent the registered address of a company, it may not necessarily reflect the location(s) of company activity or operation.
Further details on these and other caveats can be found under ‘Section 16 (Advice and Assistance)’ below.
Under section 16 of the Act (Advice and Assistance) you may find it useful to note:
Companies House data are used as the source of reporting on all company insolvencies. 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.
Caveats to note when interpreting information provided in this letter
As described above, company address information reflects the registered address filed at Companies House as at the insolvency date, which is often updated to that of the office holder in an insolvency rather than the location the company traded. Note that even where the data held does accurately represent the pre-insolvency registered address of a company, it may not necessarily reflect the location(s) of company activity or operation. For example, some companies may be registered at a central office, but operate in a number of different locations, or use virtual office services.
The Insolvency Service publishes quarterly company insolvency National Statistics on the gov.uk website. This quarterly series provides more granular summaries of company insolvencies by type. Company location information is not routinely published within this series since the accuracy of the company address information held by the Insolvency Service does not meet the National Statistics quality standards.
The total numbers of insolvencies in this response do not exactly match the company insolvency numbers provided in the Quarterly Insolvency statistics. This is because the Quarterly Insolvency statistics use Insolvency Service administrative data for compulsory liquidations, but this response uses Companies House data, which has more complete address information.
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.
Yours sincerely,
Information Rights Team
The Insolvency Service