Catalogue description Records of the Insolvency Service

The Insolvency Service was set up in 1974 as part of the new Department of Trade, and was responsible for policy & legislation; the administration of insolvency under the Companies and Bankruptcy Acts; and negotiations over the EEC draft bankruptcy convention. In 1983 it moved to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and in March 1990, the Service became an executive agency of the DTI, subsequently the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) from 2007 and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) from 2009.

The Insolvency Service operates mainly under the Insolvency Acts 1986 and 2000, the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986, the Companies Act 1985 and the Employment Rights Act 1996. It provides the essential mechanisms and efficient means for dealing with individual and corporate financial failure and the investigation of fraud and misconduct in insolvencies and assesses and pays statutory entitlement to redundancy payments when an employer cannot or will not pay its employees. In 2006 the Companies Investigation Branch of BIS transferred to the Insolvency Service. The Service is accountable to BIS and to Ministers for the performance of its statutory and other functions.