§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the President of the Board of Trade, pursuant to his answer of 1 February,Official Report, columns 615–16, if he will make a statement on the reasons why the number of fraudulent trading convictions submitted by bodies other than the Insolvency Service fell from five in 1992–93 to two in 1993–94.
§ Mr. Neil HamiltonThe number of cases submitted by bodies other than the Insolvency Service which contain allegations of possible offences of fraudulent trading, and the number of prosecutions arising from such referrals, is small. The variations from year to year are erratic.
§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will make a statement as to how his consultants on the privatisation of the Insolvency Service should compare the efficiency of the Insolvency Service with that of insolvency practitioners with regard to mechanical processing work in the absence of data on the number of voluntary liquidations completed in any year.
§ Mr. Neil HamiltonThe consultants' work will involve a comparison between the value for money offered by 207W private sector contractors with that provided by official receivers in performing those mechanical, processing tasks carried out by official receivers.
§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will list the current proposals being drawn up by the Insolvency Service agency for major information technology expenditure where the proposals have not yet been quantified or approved.
§ Mr. Neil HamiltonThe Insolvency Service continues to explore the possibility of productive investment in information technology across the range of its functions and in the light of its likely business needs.
§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the President of the Board of Trade how much of the expenditure on information technology during the last five years and the expected expenditure during the next five years by the Insolvency Service relates to(a) mechanical processing work and (b) investigation; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Neil HamiltonThe bulk of the service's information technology expenditure over the last five years and during the next few years has been and will continue to be made in three areas. These are:
- (i) development and support for the Insolvency Service information system mainframe system;
- (ii) development and installation of the service's local office information system—LOIS—which will replace ISIS in due course; and
- (iii) the development of a new computer system for central accounting unit.
Both ISIS and LOIS supports the range of the service's functions.
§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the President of the Board of Trade, pursuant to his answer of 30 November,Official
Fraudulent trading cases 1 April 1989–4 March 1994 Years(1 April-31 March) Total number of fraudulent trading trials Number of successful fraudulent trading trials Number of unsuccessful fraudulent trading trials 1989–90 18 14 4 1990–91 14 11 3 1991–91 27 8 9 1992–93 27 17 10 19931 29 18 11 1 To 4 March 1994. Note:
"Trials" means contested cases where one of the main counts is fraudulent trading.
"Successful" means a conviction is secured for fraudulent trading against one or more defendants in the trial.
"Unsuccessful" means no conviction for fraudulent trading was secured against any defendant in the trial. It includes cases where one or more convictions were secured in other counts, for example for Theft Act offences or for failure to keep proper accounting records.
The figures are for cases prosecuted by the DTI. Other agencies, such as the Crown Prosecution Service, also prosecute offences of fraudulent trading.
§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what is the cost of employing consultants on the privatisation of the Insolvency Service; and if the cost will be met from the Insolvency Service budget.
§ Mr. Neil HamiltonThe 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 cost of the review, which is commercially confidential, will be met from Insolvency Service resources.
208WReport, columns 419–20, what assessment he has made of the reasons why authorising bodies have struck off only one unfit insolvency practitioner since the introduction of the Insolvency Act 1986 where the initial complaint did not originate with the Insolvency Service; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Neil HamiltonMany complaints about the conduct of insolvency practitioners are made initially to my Department's Insolvency Service, notwithstanding that the particular practitioner concerned is authorised by one of the recognised professional bodies. This may be because the complainant is not aware of the authorisation procedures introduced by the Insolvency Act 1986 or, alternatively, he does not know by which of the bodies the practitioner is authorised.
The Insolvency Service refers such complaints to the appropriate authorising body to take such action as may be appropriate.
§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the President of the Board of Trade how many trials for fraudulent trading resulted in an acquittal for each of the past five years; and how many of those trials were instituted by the Insolvency Service.
§ Mr. Neil HamiltonThe figures for trials in proceedings brought by my Department where any defendant pleaded not guilty to one or more charges of fraudulent trading are set out in the following table. Records are not kept in such a form that information about the origin of all these cases is readily available, but I can say that in 1992–93 seven of the unsuccessful trials arose from investigations by the Insolvency Service and that in 1993–94 all of the unsuccessful trials arose from such investigations.