FOI release

FOI22/23-030 - Bankruptcy figures and bounce back loans

Published 18 January 2023

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/insolvency-service-foi-responses-april-to-june-2022/foi2223-030-bankruptcy-figures-and-bounce-back-loans

Our ref: FOI22/23-030

Re: Freedom of Information Act 2000

Thank you for your email of 13 June in which you requested from the Insolvency Service:

Please could you provide the following information relating to the period from May 2020 to the present day.

  1. Companies in England, Scotland and Wales that have entered insolvency via compulsory liquidation, creditors’ voluntary liquidation or administration that that had taken out a Bounce Back Loan facility.

  2. Directors of companies that have received a disqualification where the company had taken out a Bounce Back Loan facility.

  3. Individuals that have been declared insolvent/bankrupt while still owing moneys in the form of a Bounce Back Loan.

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

I can confirm the agency holds some of the information that you have requested.

The following information is not held:

  • Data on companies in Northern Ireland that have taken out a Bounce Back Loan (BBL) facility.
  • Data on companies that entered a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) that have taken out a BBL facility.
  • Data on disqualifications of directors following investigations by bodies other than the Insolvency Service.

1) Companies in England, Scotland and Wales that have entered insolvency via compulsory liquidation, creditors’ voluntary liquidation or administration that had taken out a Bounce Back Loan facility.

Between 1 May 2020 and 31 March 2022, 16,589 companies in England, Scotland and Wales that had taken out a BBL facility, entered insolvency via compulsory liquidation, creditors’ voluntary liquidation or administration.

We do not hold repayment data and cannot confirm the proportion of companies that made partial repayment toward BBL debts before insolvency

We have not yet produced figures for 1 April 2022 onward.

2) Directors of companies that have received a disqualification where the company had taken out a Bounce Back Loan facility.

Within the Company Director Disqualification Act (CDDA) 1986 there are various sections under which directors may be disqualified following an investigation by the Insolvency Service. The majority of disqualifications are made under S.6.

S.2 Disqualifications

To date there has been 1 director in England, Wales and Scotland who was disqualified under S.2 of the CDDA 1986 as a result of a referral or significant input from the Insolvency Service, where the company number linked to the disqualification matched with a company number of a company which had taken out a BBL facility. This disqualification took place in June 2022.

S.6 Disqualifications

Between 1st May 2020 and 31st March 2022 there were 208 directors in England, Wales and Scotland who was disqualified under S.6 of the CDDA 1986 following an investigation by the Insolvency Service where the company number linked to the disqualification matched with a company number of a company which had taken out a BBL facility.

Between 1 April 2022 and 31 May 2022 there were 51 directors in England, Wales and Scotland who was disqualified under S.6 of the CDDA 1986 following an investigation by the Insolvency Service where the company number linked to the disqualification matched with a company number of a company which had taken out a BBL facility.

S.8 Disqualifications

Disqualifications under S.8 of the CDDA 1986 do not require a company to have entered into insolvency proceedings. Because of this, our case management systems do not provide automated reports that allow us to link such disqualifications to company names or numbers, and nor would a manual search be guaranteed to have the required information within the case file. Therefore we are not able to obtain figures requested for this type of disqualification. However, these types of disqualification are relatively rare: the total number of S.8 disqualifications between 1st May 2020 and 31st March 2022 was 18.

3) Individuals that have been declared insolvent/bankrupt while still owing moneys in the form of a Bounce Back Loan.

According to the internal management information we hold, between 1 May 2020 and 31 March 2022 there were 152 bankruptcies where money was still owed in the form of a Bounce Back Loan. Please note that this figure is part of a back-capture exercise and may not reflect the true figure.

We have not yet compiled figures for 1 April 2022 onward.

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 Commissioners 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.

Kind regards

Information Rights Team

The Insolvency Service

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