Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the safeguards in the Insolvency Rules 2016 against the misuse of insolvency proceedings as an instrument of economic abuse or coercive control against a victim of domestic abuse.

Insolvency proceedings are a regulated process designed to protect both debtors and creditors.

An individual can only be declared bankrupt by a court order following the presentation of a bankruptcy petition. The process is overseen by the court through the appointment of an Official Receiver or an Insolvency Practitioner (IP) acting as trustee.

Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs) are supervised by licensed IPs, while applications for Debt Relief Orders (DROs) can only be submitted through an authorised debt adviser.

A review of the Insolvency Rules is currently underway, and we will be gathering stakeholder views across a range of areas.