FOI release

FOI22/23-049 - Out of the total 5,629 (seasonally adjusted) registered company insolvencies in Q2 2022, how many were based in Yorkshire

Published 18 January 2023

Our ref: FOI23/23-049

Re: Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Request

Thank you for your email of 10 August 2022 in which you requested from the Insolvency Service:

“Out of the total 5,629 (seasonally adjusted) registered company insolvencies in Q2 2022, how many were based in Yorkshire?

I would also like this figure for Q1 2022, and Q2 2021.

These figures are in order to work out similar statistics to the ones highlighted at the start of the page: Commentary - Company Insolvency Statistics April to June 2022, where it is noted that insolvencies are 13% higher than in Q1, and 81% higher than in Q2 2021. I am hoping to obtain these percentages for Yorkshire specifically, rather than England and Wales in total.

I also wondered if you had a breakdown of the figures for more specific regions, for example the counties within Yorkshire.”

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

I can confirm that the Insolvency Service holds information relating to your request.

However, the information the agency holds is the address recorded on the Companies House register on the date the insolvency is registered with Companies House. This address is often the address of the insolvency practitioner (IP), who acts as an office-holder in an insolvency procedure, rather than the location of the company before it became insolvent.

For example, of the 1,440 companies with insolvencies registered in Yorkshire and the Humber between 1 January 2022 and 30 June 2022, the majority (726) were registered in postcodes with more than 50 insolvencies. When large numbers of insolvencies are recorded in the same postcode, this typically reflects the location of an insolvency practitioner. For example, 146 insolvent companies in this period have a registered address corresponding to a particular insolvency practitioner in Sheffield, which acts for companies nationwide. It is also likely that some companies are recorded with the address of insolvency practitioners in other regions of the UK, despite having been located in Yorkshire and the Humber while trading.

Subject to the above caveats, the number of companies with addresses on the Companies House register by location and quarter as at the date the insolvency was registered with Companies House were:

Location	Code	Q2 2021	Q1 2022	Q2 2022
YORKSHIRE AND THE HUMBER	E12000003	488	730	710
East Riding of Yorkshire	E06000011	7	16	13
Kingston upon Hull, City of	E06000010	12	36	22
North East Lincolnshire	E06000012	7	5	17
North Lincolnshire	E06000013	3	2	2
York	E06000014	20	42	24
North Yorkshire	E10000023	3	8	1
South Yorkshire (Met County)	E11000003	165	203	194
West Yorkshire (Met County)	E11000006	271	418	437

As described above, because of the way addresses are recorded, the numbers presented are likely to reflect the activity of insolvency practitioners in these locations rather than the actual operating locations of companies before they became insolvent.

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

Companies House data are used as the source of reporting on all company insolvencies. 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: https://www.ons.gov.uk/.

The numbers are not an exact subset of the company insolvency numbers provided in the Quarterly Insolvency statistics. This is because the Quarterly Insolvency statistics use Insolvency Service administrative data for compulsory liquidations, but this response uses Companies House data, which has more complete address information. However, the difference is small (less than five insolvencies per quarter).

As described above, company address information reflects the registered address filed at Companies House as at the insolvency date, which is often updated to that of the office holder in an insolvency rather than the location the company traded. Note that even where the data held does accurately represent the pre-insolvency registered address of a company, it may not necessarily reflect the location(s) of company activity or operation. For example, some companies may be registered at a central office, but operate in a number of different locations, or use virtual office services.

In 108 of the 14,578 total insolvencies across the three quarters requested, postcode information from the Companies House register could not be matched to a UK region. Some of these companies may be located in Yorkshire and the Humber in addition to the numbers displayed in the table above.

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