My honourable friend the Minister of State for Employment Relations and Postal Affairs (Pat McFadden) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
I have today agreed to the publishing of the Insolvency Service’s corporate plan for the period 2008-11.
The Insolvency Service plans to deal with some 74,200 new insolvencies in the year to 31 March 2009 principally as a result of an increase in personal bankruptcies.
Its planning assumption for the level of redundancy payments and other insolvency-related claims is 80,000 in the year.
Action will continue to be taken against bankrupts and company directors in respect of financial misconduct or dishonesty and I have asked the service to increase its enforcement output by 7 per cent over that achieved in 2007-08.
Companies Investigation Branch will continue to investigate the affairs of companies in the public interest and I have set targets in relation to the timeliness of dealing with complaints made and the handling of investigations into live companies that follow from those complaints.
The service’s Enabling the Future strategy, a major programme of IT-led investment, will deliver savings over the period of the forthcoming Comprehensive Spending Review and I have therefore set the service a target to have reduced its case administration fees by 15 per cent by 31 March 2011.
The service’s corporate plan 2008-11 will be available at www.insolvency.gov.uk
I have also set the Insolvency Service the following targets for the year 2008-09:
Published Targets Target 2008-09 Target 2007-08 Lower the fees for insolvency case administration in real terms from the 2007-08 level by 2010-11 15% (3 Year Target) 15% User Satisfaction Index 92% New Target Level of public confidence in the service's enforcement regime 66% 65% To reduce the average time from insolvency order to the instigation of disqualification proceedings in appropriate cases 20 Months 22 Months Increase the quantity of enforcement outputs in 2008-09 from 2007-08 baseline by 7% 7% Complete consideration of vetting complaints about live companies within 2 months 90% 90% Complete internal investigations into live companies within 6 months 90% 90% Process redundancy payment claims for payment within: 3 Weeks 78% 78% 6 Weeks 92% 92%
In addition to these targets the service is required to meet centrally promulgated targets relating to replying to correspondence from honourable Members, making payments to suppliers. The service will also look to maintain Charter Mark and Investors in People accreditation following reassessments during 2008-09.
Other Targets Target 2008-09 Target 2007-08 Reply to correspondence from Members of Parliament within 10 days 100% 100% Process payments to suppliers in 30 days 100% 100%