The monthly statistics published by the UK Insolvency Service and the company registry records maintained by UK Companies House are closely related, but they measure completely different things 7, 8 .

While both datasets track corporate financial distress, they do not directly align in terms of raw numbers 10 . The relationship and key differences between the Insolvency Service’s monthly counts and Companies House’s “Liquidation” or “In Administration” statuses involve several critical factors 2, 7 :

• The Fundamental Difference: “Flow” vs. “Stock”

  The following is the main reason why the counts are vastly different:

  • The Insolvency Service Count (Flow): This is a measure of flow 8 . It counts the number of new companies entering an insolvency procedure during that specific calendar month 8 . Once the month ends, the count resets to zero 7 .
  • Companies House Status Count (Stock): This is a measure of stock 2 . It is a snapshot of how many companies are currently in that state on the live register 2, 11 . Because formal liquidation and administration procedures can take anywhere from several months to many years to resolve, companies retain the status of “Liquidation” or “In Administration” for a long time 2, 3 .
  • As a result, the active stock of companies with these statuses on Companies House is always exponentially larger than the monthly flow reported by the Insolvency Service 8, 10 .

• Solvent vs. Insolvent Liquidations (The MVL Gap)

  The two datasets define “liquidation” differently:

  • Insolvency Service Statistics (Insolvent Only): The Insolvency Service strictly reports on insolvent corporate procedures 13 . It counts Creditors’ Voluntary Liquidations (CVLs) and Compulsory Liquidations 7, 13.
  • Companies House Status (Solvent & Insolvent): At Companies House, a company’s status is marked simply as “Liquidation” regardless of whether the process is insolvent or solvent 2, 12 . Therefore, the Companies House count includes Members’ Voluntary Liquidations (MVLs) 7 . MVLs are a tax-efficient way to close a solvent company where the directors declare all debts will be paid in full 9, 12.
  • Because thousands of solvent MVLs occur every year, a large portion of the companies sitting in “Liquidation” status at Companies House are not considered insolvent and are completely excluded from the Insolvency Service’s counts 8, 7 .

• Defining “Total Company Insolvencies”

  While CVLs and Compulsory Liquidations make up the vast majority of insolvent liquidations, the Insolvency Service’s official Total Company Insolvencies figure actually spans five distinct procedures 7, 13:

  1. Creditors’ Voluntary Liquidations (CVLs) 7
  2. Compulsory Liquidations 7
  3. Administrations 7
  4. Company Voluntary Arrangements (CVAs) 7
  5. Receiverships (very rare) 7

  Therefore, a company entering Administration is counted in the Insolvency Service’s monthly total 7 , and its status on Companies House will simultaneously change to “In Administration” 2 .

• Multi-Stage Transitions (Double Counting in Flow)

  A single company can change its status as it progresses through the insolvency lifecycle 2 :

  • A company might first enter Administration 1, 2 . The Insolvency Service will count this as an administration in Month A 7 , and Companies House will update its status to “In Administration” 2 .
  • If the administrator cannot rescue the business, they may transition the company into a Creditors’ Voluntary Liquidation (CVL) to wind it down 1, 17 .
  • When this happens, Companies House updates the company’s status from “In Administration” to “Liquidation” 2, 17 . However, the Insolvency Service counts this as a new CVL (often flagged as a “CVL after administration”) 15 .
  • In the Insolvency Service’s monthly flow statistics, this counts as two separate insolvency events over time, whereas on the Companies House register, it is a single company migrating from one distressed status to another 2, 17 .

• Timing, Lags, and Data Sourcing

  Even if you only look at new monthly registrations of CVLs and Administrations (flow) on Companies House to match the Insolvency Service’s reports, the numbers still may not align perfectly due to timing 10 :

  • Compulsory Liquidations: The Insolvency Service sources Compulsory Liquidation data for England & Wales directly from its own internal case management system (ISCIS) using the court order date (the actual start of the insolvency) 7, 14 . Companies House, however, only registers the status change once the physical court documents are delivered and processed, which can introduce a lag of several days or weeks 14.
  • CVLs and Administrations: The Insolvency Service sources these figures from Companies House data, but counts them by their registration date 14,16 . A company may legally enter liquidation or administration late in Month A, but if the paperwork is not officially registered by Companies House until Month B, it will fall into Month B’s Insolvency Service statistics 14,16 .

• The way to a correspondence

  
  If one wants to reconcile the two concepts:

  Insolvency Service New Monthly Count ≠ Companies House Active Status Snapshot
  • It is needed to understand that to approximate the Insolvency Service’s monthly insolvent flow using Monthly Companies House Basic Company Data, one cannot look at live company statuses 8, 10 .
  • Instead, one must query the Companies House Filing History (flow of newly filed documents) for the same month 6 , and only count the filings that initiate a CVL, Compulsory Liquidation, or Administration, and explicitly exclude solvent MVL declarations (Form LIQ01/Form 600 with a declaration of solvency) 5, 7

Referenced internet pages dealing with IS (Insolvency Service) and CH (Companies House) comparative information:

• 1 – What Does It Mean If a Company Goes into Administration? (from :www.creditserve.co.uk)
• 2 – Company Statuses (from : doorda.com)
• 3 – CH – What does going into administration mean? (from : companieshouse.blog.gov.uk)
• 5 – CH – Guidance, Liquidation and insolvency (from : www.gov.uk)
• 6 – Searching Companies House (from : 1stchoiceincorporations.com)
• 7 – IS – Guide to Insolvency Statistics (from : www.gov.uk)
• 8 – IS – Monthly Insolvency Service Statistics, Methodology and Quality Document, 2020 (from : assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)
• 9 – UK-GOV – Corporate Financial Distress Guidance note (HTML) (from : www.gov.uk)
• 10 – IS – Methodology and Quality Document – Business Insolvency Demography 2015 to 2025 (from : www.gov.uk)
• 11 – IS – Methodology and Quality Document – Company Insolvency Statistics, May 2026 (from : www.gov.uk)
• 12 – Administration vs liquidation – what is the difference? (from : liquidationcentre.co.uk)
• 13 – IS – Transparency data – Guide to Insolvency Statistics (from : www.gov.uk)
• 14 – IS – Monthly Insolvency Service Statistics – Methodology and Quality Document, Feb 2021 (from : assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)
• 15 – IS – Methodology and Quality Document – Company Insolvency Statistics, July to September 2023 (from : www.gov.uk)
• 16 – IS – Commentary – Company Insolvency Statistics, September 2024 (from : www.gov.uk)
• 17 – CH – Guidance – Liquidation and insolvency, March 2022 (from : www.gov.uk)