FOI release

FOI22/23-141 - Insolvencies by SIC code (manufacture of beverages)

Updated 30 May 2023

Our ref: FOI22/23-141

Date: 15 February 2023

Re: Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Request

Thank you for your email of 9 February in which you requested from the Insolvency Service:

“I would be grateful if could provide me with the number of registered company insolvencies in each of the following SIC codes over the last 20 quarters (including Q4 2022) for England & Wales and Scotland:

11.01 Distilling, rectifying and blending of spirits

11.02 Manufacture of wine from grape

11.03 Manufacture of cider and other fruit wines

11.05 Manufacture of beer”

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. I have provided a table in Annex A. Quarters are calendar year quarters, such that numbers for Q1 include insolvencies registered between 1st January and 31st March. Table 1 shows the number of company insolvencies for SIC codes 1101, 1102, 1103 and 1105 (manufacture of beverages) in England & Wales, and Scotland, between 2018Q1 to the latest quarter 2022Q4.

Under section 16 of the Act (Advice and Assistance) you may find it useful to note:

Compulsory liquidations in England and Wales are sourced from a live administration system managed by the Insolvency Service. The registration date for these is the court order date. All other insolvency procedures are sourced from Companies House, with the registration date based on the date that an insolvency was registered at Companies House. Companies House carries out its statutory functions of maintaining the registry of corporate bodies that are regulated by the Companies Act 2006. Note that Companies House does not monitor all business types (e.g., sole traders) and for information on these and other business types you may wish to contact the Office of National Statistics.

Industry breakdowns have been presented in line with the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC 2007). Companies are assigned to a sector (or industry) at the time of registration at Companies House. However, a company may have changed its primary business since first registration, or the industry sector might be recorded as that of its holding company and appear under “activities of holding companies” within the Business. The industry SIC code for compulsory liquidations in England and Wales is recorded with SIC 2003 codes. To obtain SIC 2007 codes for these, companies are matched against the Companies House register where possible, and SIC data are drawn from this source. Where matching is not possible, the 2003 SIC code has been converted to a 2007 code using a ‘best match’ approach using weighted tables provided by the Office for National Statistics.

Companies with multiple insolvency procedures are included multiple times to give a full record of all registered insolvencies. Administrations which have directly resulted in a creditors’ voluntary liquidation are included only as administrations. Similar information for administrations converting to a compulsory liquidation or to a company voluntary arrangement is not available so these are counted as both insolvency procedures.

These statistics may also not align with information published separately by Companies House, or with data extracted from the Gazette. Further information on why numbers may not align can be found in the Quarterly Statistics Methodology and Quality document.

Please note FOIA only applies to recorded information, it does not require public authorities to answer a question unless recorded information exists. Therefore, to answer a request FOIA does not oblige a public authority to create information if the requested information is not held.

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