Media enquiries
Contact our press office if you’re a journalist with a media enquiry.
Journalists with enquiries can call the Insolvency Service Press Office on 0303 003 1743 or email press.office@insolvency.gov.uk (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm).
Out of hours
For any out of hours media enquiries, please contact the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) newsdesk on 020 7215 2000.
For any non-press enquiries, please contact the Insolvency Service helpline on 0300 678 0015 or online here.
Insolvency Service media policy
The Insolvency Service is an executive agency of the Department for Business and Trade.
Our work includes areas which can generate media interest.
These include:
- Investigating the conduct of directors of companies subject to formal insolvency proceedings, or that have been dissolved
- Investigating trading companies and taking action to wind them up or disqualify the directors if there is evidence of misconduct
- Working to disqualify unfit company directors
- Looking into the affairs of companies in liquidation and making reports of any director misconduct
- Acting as trustee or liquidator where no private sector insolvency practitioner is in place
- Acting as an impartial source of information for the public on insolvency and redundancy matters
- Investigating and prosecuting breaches of company and insolvency legislation and other criminal offences on behalf of the Department for Business and Trade
The information we publish
The Insolvency Service regularly publishes the outcomes of investigations it has been involved in, such as the disqualification of directors where misconduct has been found or there has been criminal activity.
In these instances, we will often publish a media release setting out the details of the case and the names, ages and addresses of the directors who have had action taken against them alongside the precise details of their companies.
We publish these details in full so they cannot be confused with other directors who have not been found to have committed any misconduct – for example directors or businesses who have similar sounding names.
It is our policy that all media releases which contain personal data are removed from our GOV.UK pages after 12 months.
Information we will share with the media
In the interests of transparency, we will share with the media on request relevant details of completed cases and investigations. Much of this information is already in the public domain, either through the Individual Insolvency Register, the Register of Disqualifications, The Gazette or through court records.
We also share with the media general guidance setting out the responsibilities of directors and the services available to people who have debt problems