Quality Management Approach
Updated 19 May 2026
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All Insolvency Service official statistics are produced and published in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics, regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation.
The framework for the Code of Practice for Statistics is based on 3 principles:
- trustworthiness – having confidence in the people and organisations that produce statistics and data
- quality – using suitable data and appropriate methods that produce assured statistics
- value – producing statistics that benefit the public by informing and supporting decision making, action and debate
Quality has 3 essential areas of practice:
- prioritise quality
- be rigorous
- be open about quality
This document sets out how we ensure sound methods, assured quality, suitable data sources, transparent communication and continuous improvement across The Insolvency Service’s published statistics.
1. Governance and roles
The Lead Official provides direction and oversight, approves major changes, and ensures impartial decisions about content, methods, and releases.
Analysts and producers apply a quality management approach, escalate concerns, and participate in peer review and lessons-learned activities.
2. Quality principles
The Insolvency Service is committed to producing accurate, timely and high-quality official statistics that meet user needs and are produced and disseminated in accordance with the Code.
The following quality principles underpin the delivery of our statistics:
- relevance
- accuracy
- timeliness and punctuality
- accessibility and clarity
- coherence and comparability
- output quality trade-offs
- user needs and perceptions
- confidentiality, transparency and security
3. Relevance
We put users at the centre of decision making about our statistics. We provide clear ways for users to engage, ask questions and offer feedback, by making it clear how to contact us and that we welcome feedback. We also hold user consultations whenever we are considering making major changes to publications.
We identify key user needs across academia, business, civil society, the media and public bodies, and report our decisions and developments transparently in our annual statistical work programme.
We signpost related UK and international statistics and explain coherence to help users interpret topics in context and understand added value.
4. Accuracy
Each publication describes data quality issues and their impacts on time series and subgroup comparisons, with strengths and limitations of sources.
Our Guide to Insolvency Statistics details how data are collected, helping users understand the strengths and limitations.
Through the use of detailed QA checklists, we ensure that appropriate checks are performed on all statistical products. These checks apply to all stages of the process, from the input data through to the final products. Where appropriate, our statistical releases are independently assured by internal specialists such as policy experts.
5. Timeliness and punctuality
Our monthly insolvency statistics are published between two and three weeks after the end of the period they refer to. This is as early as it is possible to release them given the time required for the data to be complete and all necessary production activities, including quality assurance, to be performed. Our Individual Voluntary Arrangements Outcomes and Providers and Individual Insolvencies by Location, Age and Gender statistics are published as soon as is practical given workload constraints of the production team, typically in the first three months after the end of the year they relate to.
We pre‑announce the date and time of releases in a 12 month calendar and, where possible, give a specific date and time at least 4 weeks ahead. We publish statistics at 9:30am on a weekday (usually Tuesday or Friday). See The Insolvency Service’s Official Statistics Publication Schedule.
Access before public release is limited to those involved in production, QA and operational purposes. Any changes to pre‑announced dates or times are agreed with the Head of Profession for Statistics and an explanation will be provided on The Insolvency Service’s Statistics page.
We act in line with pre‑release access rules and legislation and publish information about pre‑release access to our statistics alongside each publication.
6. Accessibility and clarity
All of our official statistics can be found on The Insolvency Service’s statistics page.
The Insolvency Service, as set out in the release practices policy, aims to present statistics clearly, impartially and in formats that meet the needs of our range of users. We publish statistics and analysis in formats such as reports, datasets and dashboards, and ensure our statistics are reproducible with appropriate published guidance.
Statistics, data and metadata produced by the Insolvency Service are published in accessible formats and are freely available to all on the gov.uk. Published visualisations and tables are in line with Analytical Function accessibility guidance.
Historic data continue to be publicly available such as historic monthly publications or on the National Archives website for data back to 1960 for some insolvency types.
7. Coherence and comparability
We base methods on national or international good practice and use recognised standards, classifications and definitions. For example, our statistics on insolvency by industry use the Standard Industrial Classification codes, while statistics by location use standard codes for local areas provided by the ONS.
We design statistics to improve comparability and consistency across geographies where possible, and we provide comparisons and signpost other relevant statistics to support interpretation. Where responsibility is devolved, we link to statistics such as Statistical Reporting at AiB - Accountant in Bankruptcy
Any notable methodological changes to our official statistics will be prominently displayed across the different statistical outputs released, where appropriate. These changes will be in line with the Insolvency Service’s Revisions Policy.
8. Output quality trade-offs
We explain any trade‑offs, such as timeliness versus accuracy, and the rationale behind them and seek user feedback. In particular, for our monthly insolvency statistics, we extract the data five working days after the end of the month they refer to. This mitigates the issue of delays in the Insolvency Service being notified about cases, or in information relating to cases being entered onto administrative systems.
In some cases, information can delayed by more than five working days. In these cases, we consider whether to suppress the latest month of information or to include the information with a note explaining that numbers will be revised in the future.
9. User needs and perceptions
We have published a public involvement and engagement strategy and actively engage key users to identify the most important questions our statistics need to answer.
We involve users in ongoing development and testing of statistics and review user satisfaction routinely, providing feedback about findings and actions.
We report our findings and decisions openly alongside our statistics or published consultation responses, including when statistics are started, stopped or changed.
Alongside each statistics publication, we publish a methodology and quality document which includes a section on quality that is aligned with the Quality Assurance Framework of the European Statistical System for statistical outputs. This enables users to judge whether the data are of sufficient quality for their intended use.
10. Confidentiality, transparency and security
We collect, access, use and share data ethically to serve the public good. We have published our data management policy which explains choices, rights and protections, transparency about breaches and public actions to address weaknesses.
Most information we publish relating to insolvency is in the public domain, being either on the Companies House register or the Individual Insolvency register. This allows us to be transparent and for example publish a list of companies that have entered insolvency alongside our monthly company insolvency statistics.
Where information is not in the public domain and may be sensitive, for example turnover of businesses, we apply appropriate disclosure control methods before release. More information is available in our confidentiality policy.
We handle and store data safely and securely, follow statutory obligations, and regularly review data management arrangements to keep pace with technological and contextual changes.
11. Contact us
Statistics team