Corporate Insolvencies Up 76% Compared to Three Years Ago

The latest figures have been released by the Insolvency Service and although December 2022 numbers fell from November 2022 they have increased dramatically from previous years.

The number of registered company insolvencies in December 2022 was 1,964:

• 32% higher than in the same month in the previous year (1,489 in December 2021), and
• 76% higher than the number registered three years previously (pre-pandemic; 1,119 in December 2019).

There were 183 compulsory liquidations in December 2022, more than three and a half times as many as in December 2021 and 8% higher than in December 2019. Numbers of compulsory liquidations have increased from historical lows seen during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, partly as a result of an increase in winding-up petitions presented by HMRC.

In December 2022 there were 1,659 Creditors’ Voluntary Liquidations (CVLs), 22% higher than in December 2021 and more than twice as many as December 2019. Numbers of administrations and Company Voluntary Arrangements (CVAs) remained lower than before the pandemic but were higher than in December 2021.

Figure 1: The number of registered company insolvencies in December 2022 was higher than pre-pandemic levels, driven by higher numbers of CVLs and compulsory liquidations.

England and Wales, December 2019 to December 2022, Not seasonally adjusted

Sources: Insolvency Service (compulsory liquidations only); Companies House (all other insolvency types)

Interpretation of these statistics

Please note that some caution needs to be applied when interpreting these statistics. Notably:

• The underlying monthly data have not been seasonally adjusted and therefore comparisons are made with the same month in 2019 (pre-pandemic) and the same month of the previous year.
• Individual voluntary arrangements (IVAs) are reported based on date of registration at the Insolvency Service, rather than date of approval. There can be a delay between month of approval and month of registration. Due to the volatility of the underlying data on registered IVAs, three-month rolling averages have also been presented to smooth out the data. However, neither counts nor three-month rolling-averages are reliable enough to indicate short-term IVA trends.
• This statistical release presents the numbers of creditors’ voluntary liquidations (CVLs), administrations, company voluntary arrangements (CVAs) and receivership appointments based on their registration date at Companies House, and therefore reflect company insolvency registrations rather than insolvency procedure start dates.

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Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.