On 8 October 2020, the Government published its report on the findings and recommendations following a review to assess the impact of voluntary industry measures introduced in November 2015 to improve the transparency of pre-pack sales in administration.

The headlines from the report are –

•  An administrator will be unable to dispose of property of a company to a person connected with the company within the first 8 weeks of the administration WITHOUT either

- the approval of creditors or
- an independent written opinion.

• The connected party purchaser will be required to obtain the written opinion AND provider of the opinion must be independent of the connected party purchaser, the company and the administrator and must meet certain eligibility requirements.

 The Government has also published draft regulations, which the Government intends to lay before Parliament as soon as Parliamentary time allows and ahead of the expiry of the power at the end of June 2021.