Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether his Department plans to introduce (a) additional regulatory and (b) enforcement measures to prevent directors of insolvent companies from engaging in phoenixing.

The Government is keenly aware of concerns around “phoenixing”, and officials at The Insolvency Service are currently conducting a comprehensive review of the civil enforcement regime to evaluate how best to tackle and prevent wrongdoing by directors of insolvent or dissolved companies. Measures were also announced at both the Autumn Budget 2024 and the Spring Statement 2025 committing HMRC, the Insolvency Service and Companies House to increase collaboration to tackle those using contrived corporate insolvencies and dissolutions (often referred to as ‘phoenixism).