Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 7 January 2015 to Question 219632, whether his Department received any direct or indirect information from people or organisations other than City Link or the administrators (a) orally or (b) in writing before 23 December 2014 that there was a possibility of City Link being placed into administration.

The Insolvency Service first received information that a national logistics firm was at risk via email on 9 December and passed this to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) on 10 December. Requests for the company name were rejected as the information was commercially sensitive. On the basis of the available information, officials worked with the Department for Work and Pensions and Jobcentre Plus to be ready to provide support should a failure actually materialise.

It is not uncommon for BIS to receive commercially sensitive information about companies or facilities at risk in strict confidence, though not all of these result in a company or site closure or significant job losses. BIS treats any such information with the utmost discretion in order to avoid precipitating a failure, which we would all wish to avoid.