FOI release

FOI 148: HR1 forms submitted and number of potential redundancies for October and November 2020 and 2021

Updated 15 February 2021

Our ref: FOI20/21-148

Date: 22 December 2020

Dear ,

Re: Freedom of Information Act 2000

Thank you for your email of 1 December 2020 in which you requested the following from the Insolvency Service:

“Please could you provide me with the following with regards to November 2020? If data for November are not yet available please could you inform me when these will be available?

  • The number of HR1 advance notice of redundancy forms received in the most recent calendar month for which you have data, and for the same month in the previous year.

  • The aggregate number of proposed dismissals in the most recent month for which you have data.”

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

I can confirm the agency holds the information that you have requested, and the requested information on HR1 forms and potential redundancies is included in the table below.

Please note that employers are only required to file a Form HR1 where they are “proposing” to dismiss 20 or more employees at a single “establishment”.

“Propose” and “establishment” have distinct meanings in this context.

The aggregate number could include proposed dismissals due to insolvency, restructuring of a solvent/continuing business, changes to terms and conditions, proposed relocation of employees etc.

It should also be noted that a proposal to make a given number of dismissals does not necessarily result in all or any of the proposed dismissals occurring.

Please note that the figures below may differ from those previously provided. Occasionally some HR1 form contain errors and are rejected (employer has resubmitted another form, or the form contained less than 20 proposed redundancies and so there was no requirement to notify). As a result, a small number of HR1s each month are reclassified as 'inactive' and are no longer included in figures.

2019 HR1 forms received 2019 Number of potential dismissals 2020 HR1 forms received 2020 Number of potential dismissals
October 339 26,575 844 51,351
November 303 27,652 552 36,686

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

Redundancy Payments Service

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