Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the Insolvency Service in tackling fraudulent business practices.

The Insolvency Service plays a key part in tackling fraudulent business practices. The agency has established the systems needed to investigate offences introduced by the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 and is strengthening its partnership with Companies House to improve corporate transparency, support the business environment and tackle economic crime.

The agency has continued to achieve significant enforcement outcomes in 2025-26, including the disqualification of over 1,000 directors, 77 criminal convictions and 52 companies wound-up in the public interest. Civil compensation orders and undertakings totalled £4,548,018, while criminal sentence confiscation orders totalled £1,901,579.