Insolvency statistics released for July 2020 – show increase in administrations

The Insolvency Service releases monthly company and individual insolvency statistics for England and Wales, and monthly company statistics for Scotland. The latest monthly release was published on 14 August 2020.

Summary for July 2020 England and Wales

Whilst overall numbers of company and individual insolvencies remained low in July 2020, when compared with the same month in the previous year, the number of companies entering administration in July 2020 increased by 25%. The Insolvency Service put this increase down to two group company failures with multiple related companies entering administration.

Key points:

  • There was a 25% increase in the number of companies entering administration in July 2020 when compared to July 2019. This increase was primarily driven by two groups of companies with multiple related companies entering administration. These two failures account for approximately one in six of all companies entering administration in July 2020.
  • Compulsory liquidations remained low when compared with July 2019, but increased to the highest monthly level since the implementation of lockdown on the evening of 23 March. This was primarily a result of the courts resuming processing of a backlog of petitions following reduced operations in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
  • The numbers of bankruptcies and DROs remained lower than numbers seen in July 2019.
  • The average number of IVAs registered in each of the 3 months ending July 2020 was unchanged from the same 3-month period in 2019. However, underlying IVA data are volatile and therefore comparisons over time are not reliable.

As the Insolvency Service does not record whether an insolvency is directly related to the coronavirus pandemic, it is not possible to state its direct effect on insolvency volumes.

The statistics – July 2020

This data is taken from the Insolvency Service Statistics for July 2020, published 14 August 2020 – see the full report here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/monthly-insolvency-statistics-july-2020

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