Directors: Misconduct
(asked on 27th April 2016) - View Source
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many cases of alleged malpractice by directors of companies the Insolvency Service investigated in each year since 2009; and in each of those years how many directors of such companies were disqualified from practising on account of offences committed (a) in the UK and (b) abroad.
When a company enters into formal insolvency proceedings, the insolvency practitioner (IP) has to file a report on the conduct of the directors unless an official receiver is in office; and each of those reports is assessed by the Insolvency Service to determine if a more detailed investigation is appropriate. When a company enters into compulsory liquidation, although this is not itself an indication of misconduct, the official receiver will in all cases make enquiries to determine the cause of insolvency and the conduct of the directors of the company.
The number of reports of misconduct submitted by IPs is detailed in the table below, alongside the total number of compulsory liquidations each year.
Reporting year | IP reports of misconduct | Compulsory liquidations | Total disqualifications |
09/10 | 7,030 | 5,418 | 1,386 |
10/11 | 5,373 | 4,573 | 1,453 |
11/12 | 5,401 | 5,125 | 1,165 |
12/13 | 5,335 | 4,001 | 1,034 |
13/14 | 4,671 | 3,734 | 1,282 |
14/15 | 4,620 | 3,588 | 1,210 |
15/16 | 4,277 | 2,778 | *810 |
*Disqualifications in the period from April 2015 to December 2015, the latest period for which official statistics are available.
All of these cases relate to companies based in and trading in the UK. In many cases, a disqualification will be obtained in a period subsequent to the submission of a report or the insolvency of the company. Each case may encompass a number of directors.