Insolvency Service (Hansard, 1 March 1994)

§ Mr. Nigel Griffiths
To ask the President of the Board of Trade when he expects to be able to announce the budget for the Insolvency Service commencing in April 1994; what plans he has to increase the level of resources available to the Insolvency Service in 1994–95 to enable the agency to increase the number of directors prosecuted for fraud and the number of directors disqualified for misconduct; and if he will give reasons for his decision.

§ Mr. Neil Hamilton
I hope to be able to publish the results of "MINIS '94" early in the 1994–95 financial year.

§ Mr. Nigel Griffiths
To ask the President of the Board of Trade how much money was paid to consultants employed by the Insolvency Service in 1993.

§ Mr. Neil Hamilton
In 1993 a total of £888,550 was paid to consultants employed by or engaged in work for the Insolvency Service.

§ Mr. Nigel Griffiths
To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will make a statement as to why an unabridged copy of the Stoy Hayward report into the Insolvency Service has not been placed in the Library.

§ Mr. Neil Hamilton
The summary which has been placed in the Library has been agreed by Stoy Hayward as a fair reflection of its report.
627W

§ Mr. Nigel Griffiths
To ask the President of the Board of Trade what plans he has to use the private sector to assist the official receiver in his duty to investigate compulsory insolvencies.

§ Mr. Neil Hamilton
The focus of the recently announced feasibility study is to assess the costs, benefits and value for money of options to increase private sector involvement in the mechanical processing work of the official receiver thus ensuring that official receivers are able to concentrate more on their investigating role.

§ Mr. Nigel Griffiths
To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will make a statement as to whether cost will be the major consideration in deciding if work currently carried out by the Insolvency Service will be transferred to the private sector.

§ Mr. Neil Hamilton
Value for money will be the major consideration in determining the scope for involving the private sector more in the mechanical processing work in insolvencies.

§ Mr. Nigel Griffiths
To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will make a statement as to the effectiveness to the Insolvency Service of the staff currently on loan from other Government Departments.

§ Mr. Neil Hamilton
Staff on loan to the Insolvency Service from other Government Departments have proved generally very effective in assisting on a range of tasks and in the service's efforts to increase the focus on its investigative role.

§ Mr. Nigel Griffiths
To ask the President of the Board of Trade what are the projected figures for compulsory insolvencies, differentiating between bankruptcies and companies, for the next five years.

§ Mr. Neil Hamilton
My Department does not publish forecasts for insolvencies. The working assumption being used in the current "MINIS" resource allocation exercise is that there will be some 28,000 bankruptcies and 7,000 compulsory liquidations in the financial year 1994–95.

§ Mr. Nigel Griffiths
To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will make a statement on the conclusion in the Stoy Hayward report into the Insolvency Service relating to the costs of the private sector undertaking the work of the Insolvency Service.

§ Mr. Neil Hamilton
The recently announced feasibility study will involve further, more detailed work to assess the costs and benefits of the various options identified in the first stage of the review. Any further comment must await the results of the feasibility study.

§ Mr. Nigel Griffiths
To ask the President of the Board of Trade what resources the inspector general and agency chief executive of the Insolvency Service requested for each of the past six years; and what were the resources granted.

§ Mr. Neil Hamilton
I refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer given by my hon. Friend the Minister for Energy on 9 February,Official Report, column 321.

§ Mr. Nigel Griffiths
To ask the President of the Board of Trade how many staff in the Insolvency Service are currently on loan from other Government Departments; which are the Departments concerned; and how many are on loan from each.
628W

§ Mr. Neil Hamilton
As at 1 March 1994, the Insolvency Service has 93 staff on loan from other Government Departments. These are HM Customs and Excise, 34 staff, Employment, 23, Inland Revenue 20, Social Security, 15, and Health, one.

§ Mr. Nigel Griffiths
To ask the President of the Board of Trade whether payment for the second stage review of privatising part, or all, of the Insolvency Service will come from the Insolvency Service budget.

§ Mr. Neil Hamilton
The purpose of the review of the future of the Insolvency Service is to examine the ways in which official receivers may concentrate more on their investigatory role by involving the private sector more in the mechanical processing work in insolvencies. The costs of the second stage of the review will be met from Insolvency Service resources.