The Insolvency Service is an executive agency of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy with headquarters in London. It has around 1,700 staff, operating from 22 locations across Great Britain. The Insolvency Service administers compulsory company liquidations and personal bankruptcies and deals with misconduct through investigation of companies and enforcement. It also makes redundancy payments in cases where a company is insolvent.
Responsibilities
It is responsible for authorising and regulating the insolvency profession. They:
administer and look into the affairs of bankrupts, people subject to debt relief orders, and liquidated companies, making reports of any directors’ misconduct
carry out investigations into live companies
act as trustee/liquidator where no private sector insolvency practitioner is in place
act as nominee and supervisor in fast-track individual voluntary arrangements
deal with the disqualification of unfit directors in all corporate failures
deal with bankruptcy and debt relief restrictions orders and undertakings
advise BIS ministers and other government departments and agencies on insolvency, redundancy and related issues
On 1 April 2006, Companies Investigation Branch of BERR transferred to the service and is based in offices in both London and Manchester. The new debt relief orders which came into force on 6 April 2009 under the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 are not dealt with by official receivers' offices but at the service's Plymouth office. In April 2003, the Redundancy Payments Service transferred to the Insolvency Service. This enabled a joined-up approach to company failure and any consequential redundancies to be had and this is demonstrated on a frequent basis.
Governance
The AgencyChief Executive is the Agency Accounting Officer and is responsible for the day-to-day running of the Service. Dean Beale succeeded Sarah Albon on 4 November 2020. The Insolvency Service Board is responsible for the long-term success of the agency. This includes:
setting strategic aims and objectives
making sure that leadership and resources are in place to meet these aims
challenging and supporting management performance
reporting to BIS
Board members
The board is made up of both executive and non-executive members. The executive members are:
