Asked by: David Crausby (Labour - Bolton North East)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many insolvencies and bankruptcies there were in (a) the UK and (b) Bolton in (i) the current financial year to date and (ii) each of the previous five financial years.
Answered by Margot James
Final answer to PQ 16545
The Insolvency Service does not produce UK-level statistics on insolvencies: statistics are presented separately for England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland because of differences in legislation and policy.
Statistics showing the number of bankruptcies, debt relief orders and individual voluntary arrangements are provided for each area since 2012 and can be found in the tables below. Bankruptcy, debt relief orders and individual voluntary arrangements apply to individuals only; regional breakdowns for the number of company insolvencies are not currently available.
The Insolvency Service compiles its regional Insolvency numbers statistics on a calendar year basis, therefore financial year totals are not available. Statistics for the calendar year 2016 were published on 13 July 2017, and statistics for 2017 are due to be published in July 2018.
Table1: Breakdown of total individual insolvencies, Bolton, 2012 to 20161
| Year |
| Total individual insolvencies | Bankruptcies | Debt relief orders | Individual voluntary arrangements | |||
| 2012 |
| 555 |
| 171 |
| 69 |
| 315 |
| 2013 |
| 486 |
| 122 |
| 64 |
| 300 |
| 2014 |
| 473 |
| 101 |
| 76 |
| 296 |
| 2015 |
| 388 |
| 71 |
| 69 |
| 248 |
| 2016 |
| 447 |
| 77 |
| 80 |
| 290 |
Table 2: Breakdown of total individual insolvencies, England and Wales, 2012 to 2016
Year | Total individual insolvencies | Bankruptcies | Debt relief orders | Individual voluntary arrangements |
2012 | 109,640 | 31,787 | 31,179 | 46,674 |
2013 | 100,998 | 24,571 | 27,546 | 48,881 |
2014 | 99,223 | 20,345 | 26,688 | 52,190 |
2015 | 80,404 | 15,845 | 24,175 | 40,384 |
2016 | 90,619 | 15,006 | 26,196 | 49,417 |
Table 3: Breakdown of total individual insolvencies, Scotland, 2012 to 2016
Year | Total individual insolvencies | Sequestrations (of which LILA/MAP)1, 2 | Protected trust deeds |
2012 | 18,402 | 9,630 (3,886) | 8,772 |
2013 | 14,250 | 7,189 (2,728) | 7,061 |
2014 | 11,622 | 6,747 (2,533) | 4,875 |
2015 | 8,785 | 4,477 (1,509) | 4,308 |
2016 | 9,708 | 4,401 (1,824) | 5,307 |
Source: Accountant in Bankruptcy.
1 On 1 April 2008, Part 1 of the Bankruptcy and Diligence etc. (Scotland) Act 2007 came into force making significant changes to some aspects of sequestration (bankruptcy), debt relief and debt enforcement in Scotland. This included the introduction of the new route into bankruptcy for people with low income and low assets (LILA). Of the number or sequestrations, individuals who meet LILA criteria are shown in brackets.
2 On 1 April 2015, part of the Bankruptcy and Debt Advice (Scotland) Act came into force making significant changes to some aspects of sequestration (bankruptcy). This included the introduction of the Minimal Asset Process (MAP), which replaced the LILA route into sequestration; mandatory debt advice for people seeking statutory debt relief; a new online process for applying for sequestration; and an additional year for people to make contributions to repaying their debts (increasing from three years to four, in line with protected trust deeds).
Table 4: Breakdown of total individual insolvencies, Northern Ireland, 2012 to 2016
Year | Total individual insolvencies | Bankruptcies | Debt relief orders | Individual voluntary arrangements |
2012 | 3,189 | 1,452 | 506 | 1,231 |
2013 | 3,373 | 1,347 | 593 | 1,433 |
2014 | 3,395 | 1,367 | 536 | 1,492 |
2015 | 2,690 | 1,071 | 472 | 1,147 |
2016 | 2,582 | 997 | 366 | 1,219 |
Source: Department for the Economy, Northern Ireland.
It should be noted that these figures do not account for any changes in the base population over time. Using the rate of bankruptcies per 10,000 adults allows for a like-for-like comparison across years.
Headline figures for insolvencies in England and Wales can be found in the quarterly Insolvency Statistics release, a National Statistics publication. Figures for January-March 2017 were published on 28 April 2017, and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/insolvency-statistics-january-to-march-2017
Annual numbers and rates of insolvencies by region for 2000-2016 are available in the Individual Insolvencies by Location, Age and Gender publication