§ Mr. Stephen O'BrienTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many business failures there have been in each year since 1997. [185511]
§ Mr. SutcliffeThe following table shows the number of company and individual insolvencies in each year from 1997 to 2003. While company insolvencies are all known to be business failures, individual insolvencies also include consumer insolvencies. For bankruptcies, a breakdown into "self-employed" (small businesses) and "other individuals" is available, although a similar breakdown is not available for individual voluntary arrangements (IVA's). For this reason it is not possible to separate all business failures from the total individual insolvencies.