FOI21/22-132 - Welsh construction statistics
Updated 14 July 2022
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Our ref: FOI21/22-132
Date: 25 January 2022
Dear
Re: Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Request
Thank you for your email of 2nd January 2022 in which you requested from the Insolvency Service:
“I am looking to obtain statistics on Welsh Construction insolvencies from Q1 2014 until Q4 2018 if possible please”
Following clarification from the agency, you added in your email of 6th January:
“I would be happy to receive the statistics broken down in quarters.”
Furthermore, you additionally requested in your email of 4th January:
“I would be interested in receiving the following statistics please - Construction Insolvencies from England and Wales, specifically SMEs.”
Your request has been dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).
We have considered your requests for information in 2 parts.
Part 1: Statistics on Welsh Construction insolvencies from Q1 2014 to Q4 2018, by quarter.
Part 2: Statistics on Construction Insolvencies from England and Wales, specifically SMEs.
In response to Part 1: I can confirm that the agency holds the information that you have requested. A summary table providing estimated numbers is attached at Annex A.
Note that there are known accuracy issues with company address information and therefore information provided is considered an estimate and some caution needs to be taken when interpreting any information provided in this letter and the accompanying table at Annex A. Further details on known accuracy issues can be found under ‘Section 16 (Advice and Assistance)’ at the end of this letter.
In response to Part 2: I can confirm that the agency holds some of the information that you have requested. Information on insolvencies in the construction sector in England and Wales is held. Summary statistics are available to you from www.gov.uk. You will find this information in the quarterly industry tables accompanying each statistical release.
The Insolvency Service is not obliged to provide you with a separate copy of information it holds where that information is reasonably accessible to the applicant. As such, the information you have requested is exempt from disclosure under section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, and your request is refused.
The Insolvency Service does not hold information on the size of the organisation, or number of employees, to be able to determine SMEs that have entered insolvency. The Insolvency Service did conduct a one-off exercise in 2018, working with the Office for National Statistics, to publish information on corporate insolvencies by size (in terms of both turnover and number of employees). However, there is currently no intention to update this exercise. The results can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/corporate-insolvencies-by-size-age-and-location-2015-to-2017
Under Section 16 of the Act (Advice and Assistance) you may find it useful to note:
Data on companies that have entered compulsory liquidation are sourced from the Insolvency Service administrative systems. Companies House data are used as the source of reporting on all other company insolvencies (creditors’ voluntary liquidations, administrations, company voluntary arrangements and receivership appointments). 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/.
Caveats to note when interpreting information provided in this letter
Companies registered in England and Wales file their insolvency notifications with Companies House in Cardiff. Therefore, confidence in the accuracy of combined statistics published for England and Wales is high as all records are captured in the data as ‘England and Wales’ insolvencies.
The registered company address filed at Companies House is then used to separate cases in Wales from cases in England. However, in some cases, the company’s registered address is updated post-insolvency to that of the Insolvency Practitioner (IP), who acts as an office-holder in an insolvency proceeding. In these cases, the address held by the Insolvency Service then reflects the office-holder’s address and not the company address. Any companies with a previous registered address in that are re-registered to an office-holder’s address outside of Wales will therefore be excluded from the information supplied at Annex A. Conversely, companies with a previous registered address outside of Wales will be included if the office-holder address falls within Wales.
Note that even where the data held does accurately represent the registered address of a company, it may not necessarily reflect the location(s) of company activity or operation.
Insolvency Service data held for compulsory liquidations do not include address information, so data are linked on a quarterly basis with Companies House data to return these values. Datasets are linked using the Company Registered Number (CRN). In some cases, the CRN is unknown or has been manually entered incorrectly on to the Insolvency Service administrative system. Therefore, no link can be made between datasets for these cases, resulting in a potential undercount of companies with a registered address in the location(s) of interest that have entered into compulsory liquidation.
Companies are assigned to a sector (or industry) in line with the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC 2007) of economic activities[1] at 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.
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 foi@insolvency.gov.uk 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
[1] Standard industrial classification of economic activities: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/standard-industrial-classification-of-economic-activities-sic
Annex A
| Registered quarter | Estimated number of insolvencies |
|---|---|
| Q1 2014 | 23 |
| Q2 2014 | 25 |
| Q3 2014 | 16 |
| Q4 2014 | 21 |
| Q1 2015 | 23 |
| Q2 2015 | 14 |
| Q3 2015 | 22 |
| Q4 2015 | 13 |
| Q1 2016 | 23 |
| Q2 2016 | 27 |
| Q3 2016 | 18 |
| Q4 2016 | 20 |
| Q1 2017 | 27 |
| Q2 2017 | 21 |
| Q3 2017 | 15 |
| Q4 2017 | 24 |
| Q1 2018 | 14 |
| Q2 2018 | 21 |
| Q3 2018 | 24 |
| Q4 2018 | 32 |