Insolvency Service

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Insolvency Service is an executive agency of the United Kingdom's Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) which:

administers and investigates the affairs of bankrupts, of companies and partnerships wound up by the court, and establishes why they became insolvent;
acts as trustee/liquidator where no private sector insolvency practitioner is appointed;
acts as nominee and supervisor in fast-track individual voluntary arrangements;
takes forward reports of bankrupts’ and directors’ misconduct;
deals with the disqualification of unfit directors in all corporate failures;
deals with bankruptcy restrictions orders and undertakings;
authorises and regulates the insolvency profession;
assesses and pays statutory entitlement to redundancy payments when an employer cannot or will not pay its employees;
provides banking and investment services for bankruptcy and liquidation estate funds;
advises DTI ministers and other government departments and agencies on insolvency, redundancy and related issues; and
provides information to the public on insolvency and redundancy matters via their website, publications, Central Enquiry Line and Redundancy Payments Helpline.

The Service operates under a statutory framework – mainly the Insolvency Acts 1986 and 2000, the Company Directors Disqualifications Act 1986 and the Employment Rights Act 1996. Its staff are based at its network of 38 Official Receiver offices throughout England and Wales; its Enforcement Directorate and Headquarters in London, Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh; its Banking Section in Birmingham; and its Redundancy Payments offices in Edinburgh, Birmingham and Watford.

The Inspector General and Agency Chief Executive is the Agency Accounting Officer and is responsible for the day-to-day running of the Service.