Transparency data

Insolvency Service Statistics Revisions Policy

Updated 30 April 2024

1. Introduction

This revisions policy has been developed to comply with section ‘T3.9’ of the Code of Practice for Statistics.

Section ‘T3.9’ of the Code of Practice states “Scheduled revisions or unscheduled corrections to the statistics and data should be released as soon as practicable. The changes should be handled transparently in line with a published policy”.

Scheduled revisions are defined as “planned amendments to published statistics in order to improve quality by incorporating additional data that were unavailable at the point of initial publication”. For example, at the time of publication of the Individual Insolvencies by Location, Age and Gender, 2023 statistics, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) mid-year population estimates used to calculate insolvency rates were unavailable for 2023, so the previous year’s population estimates were used. These rates were marked as provisional, with a note that they will be revised when the next edition of the publication is released.

Unscheduled corrections are defined as “amendments made to published statistics in response to the identification of errors following their initial publication”.

The changes should be handled transparently in line with a published policy. As per section ‘Q3.4’ of the Code, scheduled revisions, or unscheduled corrections should be explained alongside the statistics, being clear on the scale, nature, cause and impact.

Unless otherwise stated, the Insolvency Service will indicate any revisions in the notes column of the relevant table, or with a marker such as ‘[r]’ whenever numbers in publications have been revised from that initially published.

2. Background

All source data for the Official Statistics produced by Insolvency Service are collected from administrative systems. Most revisions to the data arise from the inclusion of data received after the cut off point for the original release or by changes to coverage or data supply.

Revisions due to methodological changes are unlikely to be major and are likely to be infrequent. Where more major revisions occur, these are more likely to be, for example, because of legislative changes, where a new classification is introduced, or there are changes to the IT infrastructure.

Where revisions and corrections are implemented, this policy allows the Insolvency Service to provide users with data in a timely manner while also improving the accuracy as more information becomes available.

Any charts, text or derived tables relying on revised data will be updated in the next published edition.

Several data series in the monthly company and individual insolvency statistics are subject to seasonal adjustment. The seasonal adjustment models are reviewed annually, in time for the March release. This review will be published on our policies and procedures page. The selected models will then be implemented and used until the following March. Historical numbers for seasonally adjusted series are revised, both annually as a result of any changes to the overall seasonal adjustment model, and each month as a result of new data being provided to the model.

The seasonally adjusted series will also reflect any revisions to the unadjusted series. Specific numbers will be marked as revised in data tables only if the unadjusted series has been revised. Changes resulting from the update to the model will be noted in the overall table notes instead of in specific cells in the notes column.

Numbers for the latest month are given provisional status. Small revisions to non-provisional data may occur, for example where corrections to old cases are made in administrative data sources.

Any revisions that occur will be clearly marked with in the notes column in the data tables and explained in the methodology or notes tab of the relevant workbook. Revisions considered to be of particular significance will also be highlighted in the text and/or on the gov.uk publication page.

More information on the administrative systems used by Insolvency Service can be found in the Statement of Administrative Sources.

3. Communications

We will communicate with users of our statistical products about revisions to our data. We will ensure that users are aware of regular revisions to our data, their usual timing and likely magnitude. We will introduce unplanned revisions in a structured and transparent way. Minor revisions will be described in the data tables and methodology document published with the next edition of the relevant publication. For larger corrections, the existing publication will be updated with the corrections. A change note will be added to the publication page on gov.uk, which will notify all users who have subscribed to updates for the page. In the event of a major error that significantly affects the main messages of the publication, we will directly inform people and organisations who we know use the statistics.

3.1 Pre-announcing changes

These changes could include changes to methodology, coverage, data supply or legislative or classification changes. The impact of the proposed change will be assessed, then one of two options implemented:

• If the impact is deemed to be significant, then the change will be announced via the gov.uk website and (where possible) in the release preceding that in which the change will be implemented. This will also include a summary of the likely impact of the changes, with more detailed analysis and explanatory notes being issued at the time of publication.
• If the impact is deemed to be insignificant, the change will be made without being pre-announced. Explanatory notes regarding the details of the change will be included alongside the published output.

4. Outputs Covered

This policy applies to the following publications, which can be found on gov.uk:

• Monthly Individual Insolvency Statistics
• Monthly Company Insolvency Statistics
• Annual Individual Insolvencies by Location, Age and Gender
• Annual Individual Voluntary Arrangement Outcomes and Providers Statistics

It also covers any other Official Statistics published by the Insolvency Service in the case of unplanned revisions only.

Except where otherwise stated, already published versions of the statistics are not changed when planned revisions are made. Where numbers differ from the previous published version, they are marked in the notes column in the data tables. All publications are subject to revisions due to error and to changes and corrections made in the administrative systems that are the data sources for these publications.

4.1 Monthly Insolvency Statistics

For the monthly insolvency statistics, numbers based on Insolvency Service data are routinely revised, but numbers based on data provided by Companies House are not revised except in the case of error or methodological change. For seasonally adjusted series, numbers are revised each year when the seasonal adjustment model is reviewed. There are also small monthly revisions as a result of the parameters of the seasonal adjustment model changing in response to additional data.

Table 1: Monthly Company Insolvency Statistics Planned Revisions

Revision Type	Series	Publication	Months revised
Revisions due to error	All	All	All
Methodological changes	All	All	Last 10 years
Change to seasonal adjustment model	All seasonally adjusted series	March	January 2000 onwards
Revisions due to seasonal adjustment	All seasonally adjusted series	All	January 2000 onwards
Other routine changes to source data	Compulsory liquidations, England & Wales	All	Last 10 years in March publication, last three calendar years otherwise

Table 2: Monthly Individual Insolvency Statistics Planned Revisions

Revision Type	Series	Publication	Months revised
Revisions due to error	All	All	All
Methodological changes	All	All	Last 10 years
Change to seasonal adjustment model	All seasonally adjusted series	March	January 2000 onwards
Revisions due to seasonal adjustment	All seasonally adjusted series	All	January 2000 onwards
Other routine changes to source data	Compulsory liquidations, England & Wales	All	Last 10 years in March publication, last three calendar years otherwise

4.2 Individual Insolvencies by Location, Age and Gender

This publication uses population estimates from the ONS. Estimates for the latest year are not available at the time of publication. Therefore, the insolvency rates for the latest year are based on population estimates for the previous year and are revised in the following edition of the publication based on updated population estimates. The single-year Individual Insolvency by Location, Age and Gender tables for the previous year are updated on the gov.uk website at the same time as the tables for the current year are released. In line with the policy described above, previous editions of time series tables are not re-released, however numbers that have changed in the latest release are marked with an notes column.

Table 4: Individual Insolvencies by Location, Age and Gender

Revision Type	Series	Publication	Years revised
Revisions due to error	All	All	All
Methodological changes	All	All	All
Revisions to rates due to availability of ONS population estimates	All insolvency rates	All	Previous year
Routine changes to source data	All	All	All

4.3 Individual Voluntary Arrangements Outcomes and Providers

Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs) originally registered with one provider may later be transferred to another. When the Insolvency Service is made aware of this, the administrative system used for this publication is updated and the numbers of IVAs registered by provider presented in this publication are revised accordingly.

This publication uses data extracted in February of the year after the publication it refers to. Where there are delays of longer than one month in the Insolvency Service being informed of the completion or termination of IVAs, some completed or terminated cases will be recorded as current. The tables in the following year’s publication will be revised to reflect these completions and terminations.

Table 5: Individual Voluntary Arrangements Outcomes and Providers

Revision Type	Series	Publication	Years revised
Revisions due to error	All	All	All
Methodological changes	All	All	Last 10 years
Revisions due to IVAs changing provider	IVAs by provider	All	All
Routine changes to source data	All	All	Last 10 years