Company Insolvencies

There were 4,607 compulsory liquidations and creditors' voluntary liquidations in total in England and Wales in the fourth quarter of 2008 (on a seasonally adjusted basis). This was an increase of 11.9% on the previous quarter and an increase of 51.6% on the same period a year ago.


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This was made up of 1,562 compulsory liquidations (which are up 4.5% on the previous quarter and 34.4% on the corresponding quarter of the previous year), and 3,045 creditors voluntary liquidations (which are up 16.1% on the previous quarter and 62.2% on the corresponding quarter of the previous year).

In the twelve months ending Q4 2008, approximately 1 in 150 active companies (or 0.7%) went into liquidation, compared to the previous quarter when 1 in every 165 (or 0.6%) of active companies went into liquidation.


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Additionally, there were 2,428 other corporate insolvencies in the fourth quarter of 2008 (not seasonally adjusted) comprising 261 receiverships, 2,018 administrations and 149 company voluntary arrangements.  In total these represented an increase of 220.3% on the same period a year ago.


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Note: The figures in Table II are not seasonally adjusted and are not, therefore, on the same basis as the headline figures in Table I.  The accompanying detailed tables also include the non-seasonally adjusted series for corporate liquidations.

Individual Insolvencies

There were 29,444 individual insolvencies in England and Wales in the fourth quarter of 2008 on a seasonally adjusted basis. This was an increase of 8.2% on the previous quarter and an increase of 18.5% on the same period a year ago.

This was made up of 19,100 bankruptcies (which were up 9.4% on the previous quarter and 22.2% on the corresponding quarter of the previous year), and 10,344 Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs), (which were up 5.9% on the previous quarter and 12.2% on the corresponding quarter of the previous year).


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In the fourth quarter of 2008, 84.4% of bankruptcies were made on the petition of the debtor, a similar level to that seen for earlier quarters and for 2006 and 2007 as a whole.  The percentage of bankruptcy orders involving trading debts (self-employed bankruptcies) was 12.3% in the third quarter of 2008 (fourth quarter 2008 figures for trading-related bankruptcies are not yet available).


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