Insolvency Service (Hansard, 16 January 1995)

§ Mr. Alex Carlile
To ask the President of the Board of Trade what assessment he has made of the quality of service provided by insolvency practitioners in relation to the preparation of initial misconduct reports in the light of the National Audit Office's report on company directors' disqualification; and if he will make a statement.

§ Mr. Jonathan Evans
Following the recommendations contained in the reports of the National Audit Office and the Public Accounts Committee, the Insolvency Service's disqualification unit has been monitoring the effectiveness of its programme to improve the quality and timeliness of initial misconduct reports submitted by insolvency practitioners. During the half-year ended 30 June 1994, 58 per cent. of reports received were considered to be of an acceptable quality across a range of criteria, including timeliness; during the six months ended 31 December 1994 this increased to 80 per cent.
Further improvements are expected when the unit commences a programme of guidance visits to practitioners who have a poor record of reporting; and after the introduction of revised report forms under the Government's de-regulation initiative.

§ Mr. Alex Carlile
To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will give details of the costs and savings which would result from contracting out the mechanical processing work of the Insolvency Service; and if he will make a statement.

§ Mr. Jonathan Evans
Stoy Hayward Consulting concluded that the case for contracting out and value for money grounds needed to be tested; and that a bidding process would provide such a test.

§ Mr. Alex Carlile
To ask the President of the Board of Trade what are expected to be the redundancy costs which would result from contracting out the mechanical processing work of the Insolvency Service; and if he will make a statement.

§ Mr. Jonathan Evans
No decision to contract out any functions of official receivers has been taken. It is therefore too early to say what, if any, redundancies would occur if such a decision were taken and what the related costs would be.
In the event that such a decision were taken, however, every possible step would be taken to avoid redundancies wherever possible.

§ Mr. Bill Michie
To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will now publish the Stoy Hayward report.

§ Mr. Jonathan Evans
Stoy Hayward's report on options for involving the private sector in the work of the official receivers was published on 10 October 1994 by placing copies in the Libraries of the House and DTI library. The published version of the report does not 355W include the appendices produced by the consultants as these contain financial information which is commercially confidential.

§ Mr. Bill Michie
To ask the President of the Board of Trade what legal advice he has received on the impact that privatisation of the Insolvency Service could have on the disqualification of directors and the prosecution of directors and bankrupts and on the application of the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 1981.

§ Mr. Jonathan Evans
No decision to contract out work of the official receivers has yet been taken; any decision would be subject to the Deregulation and Contracting Out Act 1994 and the procedures applicable to contracting out which are set out in it.
In the circumstances, it is far too early to consider the issue of Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations, the implications of which may not become clear until the nature of proposals in any bidding process could be assessed.

§ Mrs. Peacock
To ask the President of the Board of Trade what power the Department of Trade and Industry's Insolvency Service has over the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales or registered professional bodies if it is found that they have ignored their own bye laws on a practitioner's duty to the public.

§ Mr. Jonathan Evans
The Insolvency Service, through frequent contact with officials of the recognised professional bodies and formal visits, seeks to ensure that each body deals with complaints against its members fairly, promptly and in accordance with its own rules, and that there is consistency between the bodies. Consideration would be given to withdrawal of recognition if a body was found to be acting in disregard of its rules.

§ Mr. Alex Carlile
To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will make it his policy to ensure that the facilities of the Insolvency Service continue to be provided within the public sector; and if he will make a statement.

§ Mr. Jonathan Evans
The policy of Her Majesty's Government is that where work can appropriately be undertaken in the private sector it should be, subject to that representing value for money.
In the event that a decision is taken to contract out certain of the functions of official receivers to the private sector, official receivers, as statutory office holders, would continue to be legally responsible for the discharge of those functions. Furthermore, the work undertaken by Stoy Hayward concluded that the contracting out of administrative functions would enable official receivers to concentrate on their investigative role.