1 The Insolvency Trade Classification (ITC) was used to classify trading-related bankruptcies (and company liquidations) until end September 2006. From October 2006 the Standard Industry Classification 2003 has been in use and there have been associated changes to the method used to identify traders amongst bankrupts. The period covered should not, therefore, be treated as a consistent time series.

2 Classifying bankrupts into electoral geographies is done using the postcode that the bankrupt individual provides. The use of this in assigning an individual to a constituency is thus only as reliable as the postcode information provided.

3 In particular, inaccurate or missing postcodes mean that the numbers in the above table will be subject to an element of missing data. Nationally, this proportion has been decreasing from about 12 per cent. in 2000 to about 3 per cent. in 2008.

Note:

Company liquidation statistics are not currently available on a regional basis within England and Wales.