A bankruptcy order is made on the petition of the debtor or one of his creditors when the court is satisfied that there is no prospect of the debt being paid. The following table shows the number of bankruptcy orders made at either Bury St. Edmunds or Ipswich county courts since 1998, the earliest year for which statistics are available. Bury St. Edmunds and Ipswich are the only two county courts in Suffolk which deal with insolvency matters.
Bankruptcy petitions should be presented in the court that deals with the area where the debtor has lived or traded for the longest period in the previous six months. However, the insolvency jurisdictions of particular county courts are not directly comparable with standard geographies such as counties or parliamentary constituencies. For these reasons, figures shown in the table will not be an exact measure of bankruptcies in Suffolk.
Number of bankruptcy orders made in Bury St. Edmunds county court Number of bankruptcy orders made in Ipswich county court Total for Bury St. Edmonds and Ipswich county courts 1998 87 191 278 1999 80 212 292 2000 81 191 272 2001 92 179 271 2002 128 186 314 2003 122 274 396 2004 142 289 431 2005 217 337 554 2006 274 513 787 Source: Insolvency Service