Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what recent assessment she has made of the number of businesses that are likely to cease trading as a result of (a) higher interest rates on their debts and (b) reduced consumer disposable income in the next 12 months.

While there are no official forecasts of the number of businesses expected to cease trading, the most recent Monthly Insolvency Statistics produced by the Insolvency Service show that in May 2023 there were 2,552 company insolvencies in England and Wales, up 40 per cent on May 2022.