FOI release

FOI 157 - The Insolvency Services use of a Debt Collecting Agency

Updated 17 August 2022

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/insolvency-service-foi-responses-january-to-march-2021/foi-157-the-insolvency-services-use-of-a-debt-collecting-agency

Our ref: FOI 20/21-157

Date: 15 January 2021

Dear,

Re: Freedom of Information Act 2000

Thank you for your Email of 21 December 2020 in which you requested from the Insolvency Service:

  1. According to this document published in 2018 the The Insolvency Service is or has been a client of Indesser, also called Integrated Debt Services Ltd, which manages debt collection. Please provide the start and end date of the contract (if it has ended).

  2. The contract between the government and Indesser allows for the collection of the following information: “financial lifestyle” and “behaviours”, assets, changes in income, findings about their housemates, any aliases they use, mobile phone numbers, mortgages, utility bills, directorships, links to companies showing “signs of financial stress” and “key socio-economic and demographic characteristics.” Do you use the analytics service offered by Indesser which allows for the collection of the above information? If any of the pieces of information are not collected please list them.

  3. The contract between the government and Indesser states that Indesser will “provide specific Debt Owner employees real time access with on-screen interface to relevant databases (including commercially available databases, e.g. CRA, and any databases the Supplier and/or its Sub-contractors have developed), holding current personal, corporate and financial data.” Please confirm if the Insolvency Service makes use of this service. If so, please provide the name of the databases staff are able to access and the information they provide. If possible, please provide a screenshot of the software interface, with any personal details redacted.

Your request has been dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).

I can confirm the agency holds the information that you have requested, and our response is below.

  1. According to this document published in 2018 the The Insolvency Service is or has been a client of Indesser, also called Integrated Debt Services Ltd, which manages debt collection. Please provide the start and end date of the contract (if it has ended).

I can confirm that The Insolvency Service is a client of Indesser and has been since Q4 of the 2019/2020 financial year.

  1. The contract between the government and Indesser allows for the collection of the following information: “financial lifestyle” and “behaviours”, assets, changes in income, findings about their housemates, any aliases they use, mobile phone numbers, mortgages, utility bills, directorships, links to companies showing “signs of financial stress” and “key socio-economic and demographic characteristics.” Do you use the analytics service offered by Indesser which allows for the collection of the above information? If any of the pieces of information are not collected please list them.

The Insolvency Service has not procured and therefore does not receive this service or these data from Indesser.

  1. The contract between the government and Indesser states that Indesser will “provide specific Debt Owner employees real time access with on-screen interface to relevant databases (including commercially available databases, e.g. CRA, and any databases the Supplier and/or its Sub-contractors have developed), holding current personal, corporate and financial data.” Please confirm if the Insolvency Service makes use of this service. If so, please provide the name of the databases staff are able to access and the information they provide. If possible, please provide a screenshot of the software interface, with any personal details redacted.

The Insolvency Service does not utilise this service provided by Indesser.

Please note the Official Receiver may use private debt collection agencies to collect Income Payments Agreements (paid by people who have been made bankrupt) and money owed relating to bankruptcies and companies in liquidation.

For more information, please see the gov.uk website

If you are not satisfied with the response we have provided you and would like us to reconsider our decision by way of an internal review (IR), please contact our Information Rights Team at [email protected] or by post at:

Information Rights Team

The Insolvency Service

3rd Floor

Cannon House

18 Priory Queensway

Birmingham

B4 6FD

United Kingdom

You also have the right to contact the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) if you wish for them to investigate any complaint you may have regarding our handling of your request. However, please note that the ICO is likely to expect an IR to have been completed in the first instance.

Yours sincerely,

Information Rights Team

The Insolvency Service

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Official receivers and the Adjudicator are Data Controllers in respect of personal data processed by the Insolvency Service. For the details about how personal data is processed by the agency, please see the full Insolvency Service Personal Information Charter here: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/insolvency-service/about/personal-information-charter

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