WIREDGOV

We have published the first report on the operation of the Insolvency Practitioners’ Complaints Gateway. 

Launched in June last year, the gateway provides a single point of entry for complaints about insolvency practitioners and allows the Insolvency Service to monitor the number and nature of complaints as well as their outcomes.

This first year has been encouraging, with 900 complaints received (almost 200 more than the previous year) and 98% of insolvency practitioners covered.

In launching the report, which has been welcomed by the insolvency profession, Insolvency Service Chief Executive Dr Richard Judge says:

The detail that we now see routinely is informing our understanding of the nature and number of complaints about insolvency practitioners. It also helps us better monitor the way in which complaints are dealt with by the regulatory professional bodies (RPBs). This improved insight is enabling us to tackle recurrent issues: for example, we identified a pattern of complaints about the time taken to close Individual Voluntary Agreements (IVAs) which led to a change in the way some RPBs approach this issue.

Welcoming the report, Graham Rumney, chief executive of insolvency trade body R3, says:

Initiatives, like the Complaints Gateway, that add transparency and accessibility to the insolvency regulatory process are welcome. The Gateway is a significant improvement on the process it replaces and we were pleased to see it introduced. It’s particularly welcome that there is now hard evidence on the number and nature of complaints; it’s encouraging that, out of the tens of thousands of cases handled by insolvency practitioners in the last year, there have been relatively so few complaints made.

The UK has a world class insolvency regime but it’s not beyond improvement. We look forward to working with the Insolvency Service to further develop the Gateway and other initiatives that will help creditors and debtors get a fairer deal from insolvency.

View the report