The Insolvency Service
Cannon House
18 Priory Queensway
Birmingham
B4 6FD
Email
: xxx@xxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Tel: 0300 678 0015
www.gov.uk/insolvency-service
Thomas Martin
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
Your ref: request-653253-0c365045
Our ref: FOI2019-179(8)
Date: 20 April 2020
Dear Mr Martin
Re: Freedom of Information Act 2000 Thank you for your email of 08 March 2020 in which you requested from the
Insolvency Service:
“How much does the Insolvency service spend each year on perusing director
disqualifications?
Please break this down by each section of the CDDA act and if possible by solicitors
firm”.
Your request has been dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).
For external spend on pursuing directors I can confirm that the agency holds this
information however, it is exempt information under section 43 of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 and your request is therefore refused.
Sections 43(2) of the Act provides that information is exempt if its disclosure under
this Act would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of any person
(including the public authority holding it).
In order to apply this exemption, I have undertaken a public interest test and I am
satisfied that it is not appropriate to disclose this information. Doing so is likely to
prejudice the commercial interest of solicitors firms the Insolvency Service uses to
pursue disqualification proceedings.
Although it is in the public interest for people to understand what government
expenditure is spent on and to see that it is spent properly, it needs to be balanced
against the commercial interests of those undertaking government work since
disclosing financial or commercial information, especially when combined with other
publicly available information (for example the monthly expenditure), would be likely
to prejudice their commercial interests for example in any future government
procurement process and in the public arena more widely in what is a competitive
market for legal services.
In regard to the other aspects of your request; we do not hold the information for
internal spend for pursuing disqualifications, or a breakdown of cost by section of
CDDA. This is because our time internal process for dealing with director
disqualifications is not captured in a time recording system that can then be used to
calculate cost of staff and agency time and other resources.
Please note the FOIA only applies to recorded information, it does not require public
authorities to answer a question unless recorded information exists. Therefore, to
answer a request the FOIA does not oblige a public authority to create information if
the requested information is not held.
If you are not satisfied with the response we have provided you and would like us to
reconsider our decision by way of an internal review (IR), please contact our
Information Rights Team a
t xxx@xxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx or by post at:
Information Rights Team
The Insolvency Service
3rd Floor
Cannon House
18 Priory Queensway
Birmingham
B4 6FD
United Kingdom
You also have the right to contact the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) if you
wish for them to investigate any complaint you may have in regards to our handling
of your request. However, please note that the ICO is likely to expect an IR to have
been completed in the first instance. The ICO contact details can be found on their
website
: https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/. Kind regards
Laurie Judge
Information Rights Manager
The Insolvency Service
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Official receivers and the Adjudicator are Data
Controllers in respect of personal data processed by the Insolvency Service. For the details about how personal
data is processed by the agency, please see the full Insolvency Service Personal Information Charter here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/insolvency-service/about/personal-information-charter