PPP update: September 2022

07 October 2022

The start of Autumn has been busy for R3’s Press, Policy and Public Affairs team, with the launch of a new fraud paper, work to source member feedback on the personal insolvency framework and the publication of a new bill to help tackle economic crime.

Reforming the corporate governance framework

The insolvency and restructuring profession plays an important role in tackling fraud. But with the scale of fraud in the UK rapidly increasing, it is vital that the corporate governance framework is fit for purpose and up to date.

In September, R3 published a new paper ‘Insolvency and the fight against fraud’ which set out our key recommendations for reform of the framework that tackles fraud, focusing on reforming the company dissolution process and Companies House’s automatic strike-off process.

Since its launch, the paper has been sent to more than 200 parliamentarians and stakeholders to promote our proposals, which we believe will support Government departments and law enforcement agencies in the fight against fraud, while also providing the insolvency profession with more tools to carry out its own anti-fraud work more effectively.

Tackling economic crime

The day after our fraud paper was launched, the Government published its long-awaited Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill.

R3 has long-called for reforms to Companies House and we were pleased to finally see movement on this issue.

Among other measures, the Bill introduces identity verification for those registering a company in the UK, and the investigation and enforcement powers of Companies House will also be upgraded, enabling the organisation to cross check data with public and private partners, as well as reporting suspicious activity to security agencies and law enforcement.

The Bill will be debated in both Houses of Parliament and the team will be sending out briefings to MPs and Peers ahead of these debates.

Gathering views from the profession

Following the publication of the personal insolvency framework review, on Monday 5^th September we launched a member survey to gather feedback from the profession on how well the current framework is working and how it could be improved.

The survey is now closed, and we would like to thank all the R3 members who took the time to respond.

With the call for evidence closing on 23rd October, we are now consolidating the feedback we received into a consultation response ready to submit before the deadline. Once submitted, our consultation response will be published for all members to access.

R3 in the media

In addition to our work promoting the fraud paper, R3 CEO Caroline Sumner was interviewed on BBC Radio Four as part of a piece exploring personal insolvency options, while our commentary on the August England and Wales insolvency statistics featured in a number of national, regional and trade stories last month, including the Times, FT, Evening Standard, Accountancy Daily, and Business Live to name a few.

Our comments on local business trends continues to be popular with the regional media, with a story on a rise in bad debt from R3’s Midlands branch featuring in articles in Insider and Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce and our comments on the increase in insolvency-related activity in Yorkshire picking up coverage in Yorkshire Business Daily, Business Up North, and Yorkshire Post.