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Created27/06/2026
Updated29/06/2026

Monthly IS Insolvency Company Statistics

The monthly publication of Company Insolvency Statistics by the UK Insolvency Service provides a comprehensive look at corporate insolvency volumes, rates, and industry trends across England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland 1, 3 . Below is a brief general description of the various tables included in the monthly statistical releases, followed by a detailed breakdown of Table 1c (for England and Wales) and Table 4b (for Scotland) 1, 10 .

General Description of the Monthly Tables

The standard monthly release contains 12 distinct tables (presented as separate worksheets in the .ods or .xlsx workbook) 1, 12 . They are organized by geography and statistical focus:
  • England and Wales (Tables 1a to 3)
    • Table 1a: Company insolvencies, seasonally adjusted. Provides monthly counts of registered company insolvencies broken down by type (Compulsory Liquidations, Creditors’ Voluntary Liquidations [CVLs], Administrations, Company Voluntary Arrangements [CVAs], and Receivership appointments) 3, 8 . Seasonal adjustment is applied using an ARIMA model to remove predictable calendar-related variations, enabling meaningful month-to-month comparisons 6 .
    • Table 1b: Company insolvencies, not seasonally adjusted. Provides the raw, unadjusted monthly and annual counts of corporate insolvencies broken down by procedure type 8, 11 .
    • Table 1c: Company insolvencies by industry (3-level Standard Industrial Classification), not seasonally adjusted. Breaks down total company insolvencies by industrial sector using the SIC 2007 classification down to three levels 10, 11 .
    • Table 1d: Company insolvencies including bulk CVLs, not seasonally adjusted. Includes “bulk CVLs”—large-scale group insolvencies of connected companies that are typically removed from the main statistics (Tables 1a and 1b) to avoid skewing underlying economic trends 1, 4.
    • Table 1e: Moratoriums and restructuring plans, not seasonally adjusted. Tracks the number of companies registering newer rescue procedures introduced under the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 1, 14 .
    • Table 2: Creditors’ voluntary liquidations following administration, not seasonally adjusted. Tracks instances where companies transitioned into a CVL after initially entering administration 1, 8 .
    • Table 3: Company insolvency rolling 12-month rate per 10,000 companies on the effective register. Calculates the probability of a registered active company entering insolvency over a rolling 12-month period, which helps contextualize absolute numbers over longer timeframes 3, 11 .
  • Scotland (Tables 4a to 5)
    • Table 4a: Company insolvencies, not seasonally adjusted. Monthly and annual raw counts of Scottish company insolvencies, split by procedure type 10 . (Note: Scotland’s data is not seasonally adjusted 9 ).
    • Table 4b: Company insolvencies by industry (3-level Standard Industrial Classification), not seasonally adjusted. Provides the industry sector breakdown of Scottish company insolvencies (identical in purpose to Table 1c) 1, 11 .
    • Table 5: Company insolvency rolling 12-month rate per 10,000 companies on the effective register. The rolling corporate insolvency rate specifically for Scottish registered businesses 1 .
  • Northern Ireland (Tables 6 to 7)
    • Table 6: Company insolvencies, not seasonally adjusted. Monthly and annual counts of corporate insolvencies in Northern Ireland 1, 11 .
    • Table 7: Company insolvency rolling 12-month rate per 10,000 companies on the effective register. The rolling corporate insolvency rate specifically for businesses registered in Northern Ireland 1 .

Detailed Description of Table 1c (England & Wales) and Table 4b (Scotland)

Table 1c and Table 4b provide detailed structural data on company insolvencies by industry 10, 11 . Northern Ireland is excluded from this detailed industrial reporting because its smaller caseload volumes make monthly 3-digit SIC analysis statistically volatile. Both tables share a highly structured layout designed to segment insolvencies by economic sector using the UK Standard Industrial Classification (SIC 2007) system 11, 12 .
  • Hierarchical Row Structure (3-Level SIC)
    The rows of both tables represent the hierarchy of the SIC 2007 classification, descending through three levels of detail 1, 13 :
    • Level 1 (Section): The broadest economic sectors, denoted by letters A to U (e.g., Section F: Construction, Section I: Accommodation and Food Service Activities, or Section G: Wholesale and Retail Trade) 13, 15 .
    • Level 2 (Division): The 2-digit numeric codes representing specific industries within a section (e.g., Division 41: Construction of buildings, Division 56: Food and beverage service activities) 13 .
    • Level 3 (Group): The 3-digit numeric codes representing specialized sub-groups (e.g., Group 412: Construction of residential and non-residential buildings, Group 561: Restaurants and mobile food service activities) 13 .
    Supplementary Rows: At the end of the industrial lists, the tables include rows for cases that do not map to an active trading industry:
    • Non-trading and dormant companies 14 .
    • Unknown industry (where Companies House records do not have an associated or valid SIC code at the time of data extraction) 2, 14 .
  • Column Structure (Timeframes)
    The columns organize the data into distinct time horizons 12 :
    • Annual Columns: Historical annual totals (for the April 2026 release, these run back to 2016) 2, 12 .
    • Monthly Columns: Month-by-month raw insolvency totals. In Table 1c and Table 4b, the monthly columns run back to January 2023 (providing over three years of monthly historical data) 13, 2 .
    • The “One-Month Lag” Variable: Traditionally, industry breakdowns are reported with a one-month lag compared to the overall tables (e.g., the April 2026 publication may only show industry data up to March 2026) 2, 7 . This lag exists because compulsory liquidations are sourced from live court systems, and several weeks may pass before a company’s SIC code is matched and populated on the Insolvency Service’s administrative database 13, 9 . When data processing permits, the Insolvency Service occasionally prints up to the current month if unclassified backlogs are minimal 14 .
  • Core Differences and Exclusions in Table Contents
    While they serve the same purpose, Table 1c and Table 4b differ slightly due to regional administrative systems:
    • Removal of Bulk CVLs (Table 1c only): Table 1c explicitly filters out “bulk CVLs” that occurred between 2016 and 2019 to prevent extreme distortions in specific sectors (such as administrative services) 5, 14 . These are presented alongside total numbers separately in Table 1d 5 . Scotland (Table 4b) did not experience these bulk scheme registrations, so no such filter is applied 5 .
    • Primary Data Sources:
      • Table 1c (England & Wales): Combines compulsory liquidation court order data (held directly by the Insolvency Service administrative systems) with other corporate procedures (sourced from Companies House snapshots) 5 .
      • Table 4b (Scotland): Sourced primarily from Companies House registration databases 8, 11 .
    • Methodological Interpretation Warning: Both sheets include a vital user note 9 : the absolute volume of insolvencies in an industry is heavily dictated by the total number of active companies on the register in that sector. Therefore, a high number of insolvencies in Construction (Section F) or Retail (Section G) in these tables does not automatically mean a company in those sectors has a higher probability of failing compared to a company in a smaller sector; it simply reflects the larger size of those industries in the UK economy 9 15.

Referenced internet pages dealing with IS (Insolvency Service) on-line information:
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