Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether he plans to bring forward legislative proposals to strengthen protections for small businesses against “phoenixing” as part of the Government’s late payment reforms in West Dorset constituency.

This Government will legislate to end the scourge of late payments which costs the UK economy £11bn per year and closes down 38 UK businesses every day. We published a consultation on our proposed legislative measures on 31^st July which is live until 23^rd October.

The Insolvency Service is committed to working closely with HMRC and Companies House to tackle the harm caused by companies who use ‘Phoenixing’ as a means of avoiding liabilities. There is a range of ongoing activity being led by the Treasury that includes a desire to develop a detailed cross-government threat assessment.