11 May 2007
The Ministry of Justice today publishes statistics for company winding up, and creditors' and debtors' bankruptcy petitions issued in the High Court and county courts of England and Wales during the first quarter of 2007.
The Ministry of Justice today publishes statistics for company winding up, and creditors' and debtors' bankruptcy petitions issued in the High Court and county courts of England and Wales during the first quarter of 2007.
Findings
In the first quarter of 2007 the following number of petitions were issued:
- 3,330 company winding up petitions - an increase of 5% on the petitions in the same quarter of 2006;
- 5,732 creditors' petitions - an increase of 2% on the petitions in the same quarter of 2006;
- 15,094 debtors' petitions - an increase of 9% on the petitions in the same quarter of 2006.
Table 1 (available on the Ministry of Justice website) shows the number of company windings up, and creditors' and debtors' bankruptcy petitions issued annually since 1995, and by quarter since 2002. Table 1 can be found at: http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/companywindingupandbankruptcy.htm
Table 2 (available on the Ministry of Justice website) shows a breakdown of the figures by county court, county and region for the first quarter of 2007 and the percentage change since the corresponding quarter of 2006. Table 2 can be found at: http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/companywindingupandbankruptcy.htm
Figures on insolvency petitions are published on a quarterly basis. The release schedule for the rest of the year is as follows:
2007 Q2 statistics released Friday 10th August 2007
2007 Q3 statistics released Friday 9th November 2007
2007 Q4 statistics released Friday 8th February 2008
Explanatory Notes
1. No assumption can be made from these statistics about the number of companies that go into liquidation, or the number of individuals made bankrupt. The figures published by the Ministry of Justice show the number of company winding-up petitions and bankruptcy petitions presented to the court. This information is taken from court administrative systems and is different to the quarterly statistics published by the Insolvency Service. The Insolvency Service figures, showing the number of company winding-up orders and bankruptcy orders, are derived from administrative records of the DTI Insolvency Service and Companies House Executive Agencies. The statistics published by the Insolvency Service can be found at: http://www.insolvency.gov.uk/otherinformation/statistics/insolv.htm
2. The Q1 2007 figures are provisional and therefore liable to revision to take account of any late amendments.
3. INSOLVENCY: - A company or individual with debts that they are unable to pay is said to be 'insolvent'.
4. COMPANY WINDING UP: - When it becomes necessary to terminate a company's existence, whether owing to insolvency or for some other reason, the process is called 'winding up'.
5. There is a restriction on proceedings that may be commenced in county courts, which is based on the paid-up capital of the company. Well over half of winding up proceedings are commenced and handled in the Chancery Division of the High Court at the Royal Courts of Justice in London and at the eight provincial High Court centres. These centres are flagged [O] in Table 2.
6. Company winding up proceedings will normally be commenced at the court centre local to the registered office of the company, which will not necessarily be situated in the same geographical area as the company's base or operational area. The relative regional levels of winding-up activity do not therefore necessarily reflect the geographical distribution of the companies involved.
7. INDIVIDUAL BANKRUPTCY: - Being bankrupt means you are or have been subjected to a bankruptcy order. A court makes a bankruptcy order only after a petition has been presented.
8. Proceedings for bankruptcy can be commenced at county courts with the appropriate jurisdiction, or in the Chancery Division of the High Court, either by a creditor (the person to whom the debt is owed) or by a debtor (the person who owes the debt).
9. Any public enquiries should be made on Tel. 020 7210 8846 or 8818.