Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what recent assessment his Department has made of the practice of voluntary liquidation by companies with (a) liabilities and (b) outstanding contractual obligations that begin operations under another name.

My Department has not made these assessments. However, liquidators of an insolvent company are required to report on the conduct of its directors to the Insolvency Service, who will consider investigating potential misconduct and seek to disqualify the directors if appropriate.