PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Insolvency (4 June 2014)

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many insolvencies there were in each (a) region of England and (b) London borough in (i) 2011-12, (ii) 2012-13 and (iii) 2013-14; and if he will make a statement.

Asked by:
Gareth Thomas (Labour)

Figures for the number of individual insolvencies in region in England and each London borough in 2011 and 2012 can be found in the tables below. Individual insolvency figures include bankruptcy orders, debt relief orders and individual voluntary arrangements.

The Insolvency Service compiles its regional individual insolvency statistics on a calendar year basis, therefore financial year totals are not available. Figures for 2013 will be available on the Insolvency Service website from 10 July 2014.

Regional breakdowns for the number of company insolvencies are not currently available.

Table 1: Number of Individual Insolvencies in each Region of England, 2011-2012¹

Region	2011	2012
North East	7,320	6,924
North West	16,202	15,451
Yorkshire and The Humber	12,255	11,265
East Midlands	10,956	9,722
West Midlands	11,964	11,054
East of England	12,098	11,108
London	10,803	9,583
South East	16,430	14,366
South West	13,049	12,545
England	111,077	102,018
1 Where individual has provided a valid postcode

Table 2: Number of Individual Insolvencies in each London Borough, 2011-2012¹

London Borough	2011	2012
City of London	5	12
Barking and Dagenham	387	371
Barnet	364	322
Bexley	379	336
Brent	336	304
Bromley	355	372
Camden	229	232
Croydon	561	519
Ealing	331	301
Enfield	401	372
Greenwich	469	421
Hackney	342	252
Hammersmith and Fulham	203	163
Haringey	348	282
Harrow	223	186
Havering	344	316
Hillingdon	339	343
Hounslow	378	332
Islington	326	272
Kensington and Chelsea	194	173
Kingston upon Thames	166	165
Lambeth	383	328
Lewisham	386	360
Merton	230	196
Newham	437	391
Redbridge	340	334
Richmond upon Thames	197	165
Southwark	360	361
Sutton	386	287
Tower Hamlets	409	295
Waltham Forest	446	369
Wandsworth	281	260
Westminster	268	191
London Total	10,803	9,583
1 Where individual has provided a valid postcode

It should be noted that these figures do not account for any changes in the base population over time. Using the rate of bankruptcies per 10,000 adults allows for a like-for-like comparison across years.

Headline figures for insolvencies in England and Wales can be found in the quarterly Insolvency Statistics release, a National Statistics publication. Figures for January-March 2014 were published on 29 April 2014, and can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/insolvency-statistics-january-to-march-2014

Annual numbers and rates of bankruptcies by region for 2000-2012 are available in the Individual Insolvencies by Region publication, which can be found at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/insolvency-statistics-individual-insolvencies-by-region

Answered by:
Jenny Willott (Liberal Democrat)
9 June 2014