The UK Insolvency Service operates under a statutory framework, mainly the Insolvency Acts 1986 and 2000, the Company Directors Disqualifications Act 1986 and the Employment Rights Act 1996.

Insolvency Service staff are based out of a network of 38 Official Receiver offices throughout England and Wales; the Enforcement Directorate and Headquarters in London, Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh; the Banking Section in Birmingham; and the Redundancy Payments offices in Edinburgh, Birmingham and Watford.

What the Insolvency Service Does:

• administer and investigate the affairs of bankrupts, of companies and partnerships wound up by the court, and establish why they became insolvent;
• act as trustee/liquidator where no private sector insolvency practitioner is appointed;
• act as nominee and supervisor in fast-track individual voluntary arrangements;
• take forward reports of bankrupts’ and directors’ misconduct;
• deal with the disqualification of unfit directors in all corporate failures;
• deal with bankruptcy restrictions orders and undertakings;
• authorise and regulate the insolvency profession
• assess and pay statutory entitlement to redundancy payments when an employer cannot or will not pay its employees;
• provide banking and investment services for bankruptcy and liquidation estate funds;
• advise DTI ministers and other government departments and agencies on insolvency, redundancy and related issues; and
• provide information to the public on insolvency and redundancy matters via their website, publications, Central Enquiry Line and Redundancy Payments Helpline.

The Insolvency Service also maintains the Individual Insolvency Register online.