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We are currently analysing
the 70 submissions we received on proposals
announced in May to improve the UK’s corporate insolvency
framework. Our insolvency regime is highly regarded internationally but we want
to ensure that it continues to deliver the best possible outcomes for business.
We are considering updating our regime in light of international principles
developed by the World Bank and the United Nations Commission on International
Trade Law (UNCITRAL), as well as in the wake of recent large corporate
failures. Under consideration are four broad areas for reform, including
introducing a moratorium, widening the definition of essential supplies,
developing a new restructuring plan and increasing the availability of rescue
finance. The Government will publish its response to the feedback we received
in due course.
 We
hosted Insolvency Live! at the end of July for insolvency and debt advisory
professionals. The event provided an opportunity to hear from our senior staff,
ask questions and share feedback. Around 70 insolvency practitioners, debt
advisers, creditor representatives, regulators and others joined us. We have published
highlights online
for those who were unable to attend, including video podcasts of the opening
address by our chief executive and Inspector-General Sarah Albon and the presentation
on the outlook for the economy. We are in the process of asking attendees what
they thought with a view to running a bigger and better event next year. We would
welcome your suggestions for
the 2017 event as well.
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A revised table of fees for
bankruptcy and company insolvency applications was introduced on 21 July 2016. The revised fee structure has been designed to achieve as
close to full cost recovery as possible and works on the principle of matching
revenue to work carried out. We are required to set our fees to cover our
costs. The changes follow a review of our previous fee system with officials
from HM Treasury after concerns that it was out of step with Managing Public
Money principles (that those who receive a service should bear the cost) and
puts the
agency on a more sustainable financial platform. The new table of fees is more
transparent, reduces the cross subsidy between cases with assets and those
without, and enables creditors and debtors to clearly understand upfront what
it will cost to initiate an insolvency and have it administered either by the
Official Receiver or by an Insolvency Practitioner.
We have implemented changes
to improve the way we manage the final tier of our complaints process. From 1
June 2016 complaints at tier 3 will no longer be investigated by the
Adjudicator’s Office. Instead they will be fully investigated by the Insolvency
Service’s chief executive and we aim to conclude investigations within three months,
halving current tier 3 response time. The changes mean that:
- our customer service and handling of
complaints will be subject to scrutiny at the highest level
- customers will receive speedier response to
their complaints
- we will be able to identify patterns and
learn lessons much more easily and continue to improve the services we offer to
customers
All
cases already with the Adjudicator’s Office will continue to be dealt with by
them. Tiers 1 and 2 of our complaints process remain unchanged. More
information about our complaints process, including the new
arrangements for tier 3, is available on our website.
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In
March we launched a smart
answer tool
on GOV.UK to provide information on the
different options available to help people deal with unmanageable debt.
The tool aims to help people understand what options are out there and to point
them to debt advisers for further debt advice. To date the tool has had more
than 85,670 page views, making it our fourth most popular mainstream page.
During the development phase we regularly sought feedback from users regarding
the tool and we have continued to receive comments since its launch. We have
recently made some changes to the tool reflecting the comments we received from
the debt avice sector especially on the content describing bankruptcy, debt
relief orders (DROs) and individual voluntary arrangements (IVAs):
- the updated bankruptcy content now better differentiates
between possessions and properties
- there is updated DRO content on how an individual’s debts are
managed
- the updated IVA content and logic better accounts for the
wide range of IVAs that exist in the market
We continue to welcome
your comments on how we can continue to improve the tool.
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We’ve launched
a new landing
page
for debt advisers which provides a single entry point for tools and information
from across GOV.UK. We hope you find the single page useful and welcome any feedback you may have about
how we can improve it.
 We
are introducing a new, more robust, way to measure customer satisfaction this
year. We have until now used customer comment cards and online surveys to
measure customer satisfaction and our performance has consistently exceeded our
published Ministerial target. While these methods gather information on employee
performance at the point of contact they do not enable us to gather feedback
from all our customer groups, cover the full end-to-end services we provide,
help us understand what our customers perceive as good customer service or help
us identify where improvements could be made. From this year we are introducing
a new survey to measure customer satisfaction which will address the
limitations of our existing methodology. The new survey will:
- capture
feedback from all of our key customer groups, which include: debt relief order
debtors; approved intermediaries; bankrupts; directors of insolvent companies;
redundancy payments claimants; institutional creditors; non-institutional
creditors; and insolvency practitioners
- give
us a more detailed and complete picture of our customers’ perceptions and
experiences of the products and services we offer
- provide
us with valuable insight that will help us improve in all areas and focus on
delivering a better service for our customers
The
new survey will be run annually by an external research agency using computer
aided telephone interviews, with fieldwork conducted around February to March
each year.
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The
Stationary Office would like to hear from insolvency practitioners about
how you place notices in The Gazette. It has compiled a short
survey
which you are invited to complete. The results of this survey will help The
Gazette optimise services in the future, making them as relevant as possible
for you and your organisation.
-
Insolvency
Service Annual
Report,
2015-16 (published July
-
Insolvency
Service Annual
Plan,
2016-17 (published July
-
Personal
and corporate insolvency statistics, April
to June 2016
(published 28 July)
-
Insolvency
Service enforcement outcomes provisional monthly data, April
to June 2016 (to be published on 12 August 2016)
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