The closest available estimates for bankruptcies among farmers are the numbers of bankruptcy orders made under the category “agriculture and horticulture” according to the Insolvency Trade Classification (ITC). The table provides the figures for England and Wales, which are available from 1990 onwards.
Bankruptcies in Scotland and Northern Ireland are the responsibility of the devolved administrations and, while total bankruptcies could be provided, a breakdown by industry is not available.
Bankruptcy statistics are classified regionally according to the locations and areas of responsibility of official receivers’ (ORs) offices, each of which covers a number of courts having insolvency jurisdiction, and are not directly comparable with administrative geographies. Statistics broken down both by industry and regionally are not readily available for the period requested.
The Insolvency Trade Classification is not consistent with the Standard Industrial Classification 2003 (SIC2003) which is used to classify businesses, nor is the regional classification in use consistent with standard administrative geographies such as counties and Government office regions (GORs). It is not, therefore, possible to provide reliable estimates of the proportions of farmers becoming bankrupt, either at the regional or national level.
Bankruptcies in England and Wales in the Agriculture sector, January 1990 September 2006:
Bankruptcy orders in agriculture sector (E and W) 1990 198 1991 266 1992 313 1993 277 1994 231 1995 218 1996 168 1997 155 1998 157 1999 183 2000 173 2001 183 2002 132 2003 151 2004 204 2005 195 2006 (up to September)1 129 1 Figures from October 2006 are not available due to development work to update the classification of new cases to the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) 2003. Note: Figures are not available prior to January 1990.