Insolvency Service welcomes Budget funding to help tackle rogue directors
Agency will receive an extra £25 million to help it tackle rogue directors
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Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced funding boost for the Insolvency Service
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The government will invest £25 million over the next five years to enable the Insolvency Service to disqualify more rogue company directors
The Insolvency Service has welcomed news in the Budget that the agency will receive an extra £25 million over the next five years to help it tackle rogue directors.
The funding announced by the Chancellor today will fund a new Abusive Phoenixism Taskforce which will be staffed by 50 people investigating suspicious company insolvencies.
The service’s Director of Investigation and Enforcement Services, Dave Magrath, said:
This is welcome funding which will help the Insolvency Service tackle rogue directors who abuse the insolvency regime to get out of repaying their debts and keep assets which are not theirs.
It will allow us to disqualify more directors who are not fulfilling their roles responsibly, which will help us to support legitimate businesses and protect consumers.
The funding will be used to investigate directors who deliberately liquidate or dissolve their companies to evade tax and write off their debts through practices such as abusive phoenixism.
This is part of a wider government crackdown on crime in the marketplace already underway, including expanding right to work checks to the gig economy, sub-contracted and self-employed workers, a crackdown on shops selling counterfeit tobacco and vapes, and seizing criminal cash so that it can be reinvested into communities.
In 2024-25, the Insolvency Service secured 77 criminal convictions, more than 1,000 director disqualifications, and wound up 41 companies in the public interest.
The agency also launched a new five-year investigation and enforcement strategy in July 2025, with plans to play a more prominent role in the fight against economic crime and be recognised as the UK’s leading authority in enforcing corporate and insolvency standards.