Monthly insolvency statistics – March 2025

Corporate Insolvencies

England and Wales

Following a trend of lower insolvency procedures when compared with the prior years over the last 6 months. March 2025 recorded an overall increase of 9% when compared with March 2024. There were a total of 1,992 company insolvencies in March 2025.

Creditors Voluntary Liquidations (“CVLs”) totalled 1,543 and were 8% higher than March 2024.

Compulsory Liquidations (“WUCs”) totalled 295 and were 5% higher than March 2024.

There were 137 Administration appointments in March which was 30% higher than March 2024. Monthly Administration appointments in March were the second highest when compare to the last 6 months. 

There were 17 CVAs in March 25, 89% higher than March 24. 

Scotland

The statistics in Scotland showed an increase in appointments for March 2025, there were 118 company insolvencies registered, 3% higher than March 2024. There were 57 compulsory liquidations, 55 CVLs and 6 Administrations.

Northern Ireland

In March 2025 there were 29 company insolvencies registered in Northern Ireland, 12% higher than March 2024. There were 12 CVLs, 9 compulsory liquidations, 6 Administrations and 2 CVAs.

 Personal Insolvencies

England and Wales

There were 9,205 individual insolvencies in March 2025, which was 2% higher than March 2024 and 7% lower than the numbers seen last month (9,854).

The number of Debt Relief Orders (DRO’s) was very similar to the numbers seen last month (3,653), although lower than the record high seen in June 2024 (4,353) with 3,490 applications in March.

With DRO’s now increasingly being the debt solution of choice for many, bankruptcy numbers have decreased, with the total number of bankruptcies in March (613), being lower than the 2024 monthly average (634), and still significantly lower than pre-pandemic levels.

However, in March there were 166 creditor petitions, showing an increase on the 2024 monthly average of 153, with HMRC leading the push on filing petitions.

Debtors’ applications are being replaced by DRO applications by many of those with liabilities up to £50,000, with debtors’ bankruptcy applications dropping to 447 in March, compared to 530 in the same month last year.

Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVA) numbers over the past year have been significantly lower than during 2022. The number of IVA’s registered in March (5,102) was 9% lower than the same month last year (5,618) and lower than the numbers seen last month (5,586).

There were 8,033 Breathing Space (BS) registrations in March, a slight increase from registrations last month (7,775). Standard BS registrations stood at 7,932 and there were 101 Mental Health BS registrations.

The numbers indicate a slight pause in the steady increase in BS applications since their introduction, although, this procedure is merely a pause in the process and the individuals concerned will still have to deal with their indebtedness.

The numbers suggest that those exiting a BS application are being sign-posted to a DRO as their chosen exit route once the BS period had expired.

Plans to modernise the current Personal Insolvency framework could result in a single gateway to enable people to access independent, regulated debt advice, via a digital platform, or dovetailed with the current BS scheme, which may see the removal of previous barriers into appropriate and regulated insolvency procedures.

Scotland

The Accountant in Bankruptcy produces individual insolvency statistics on a quarterly basis. Therefore, the numbers in this section are only updated once every 3 months.

The quarters referred to are calendar year quarters, such that Q4 2024 covers the period 01 October to 31 December 2024. In Q4 2024, there were 1,784 individual insolvencies in Scotland, which was lower than in the same quarter of 2023.

The individual insolvencies were comprised of 1,167 protected trust deeds and 617 bankruptcies (also known as sequestrations), of which 342 went into bankruptcy via the minimal asset process route. The rules regarding bankruptcy differ to those in England and Wales, so numbers of bankruptcies are not directly comparable.

Northern Ireland

In March 2025, there were 134 individual insolvencies in Northern Ireland. This was 9% higher than in March 2024. There were 102 IVAs, 18 bankruptcies and 14 DROs.