Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to prevent insolvency; and what assessment he has made of the disparity in insolvency rates between (a) regions of England and Wales and (b) men and women.

The Government is committed to helping people make good financial decisions, establishing the Money and Pensions Service to provide free support and guidance on all aspects of people’s financial lives. It has increased funding for the provision of debt advice in each of the past two years rising to almost £56million this year in England, which will deliver 560,000 debt advice sessions.

Where individuals do get into problem debt the government has announced it will deliver its manifesto commitment for a Breathing Space scheme, which will protect debtors from creditor action, help them get professional advice on their debt problems, and enable them to find an appropriate and sustainable debt solution.

The regional personal insolvency rate increased in 2018, driven mainly by individual voluntary arrangements (IVAs), with all regions following the national trend.

Historically, males had a higher rate of insolvencies per 10,000 adults than females, but the gender gap noticeably narrowed from 2009 onwards and, by 2014, females began to have higher insolvency rates than males. This change coincided with a decline in the number of bankruptcies (where males have a higher rate of insolvency), the introduction and growth in the number of debt relief orders (where the rate for women is higher), and the narrowing and subsequent reversal of the gender gap for IVAs.

The latest data providing a breakdown of individual insolvencies can be found in Individual Insolvencies by Location, Age and Gender, England and Wales, 2018; released on 17th July 2019 on the GOV.UK website.