Liquidations by quarter: solvent and insolvent
A members’ voluntary liquidation is a solvent wind-down: the owners close a company that can pay its debts in full. A creditors’ voluntary liquidation is an insolvency. The form that starts both at Companies House is the same, so any count of liquidations taken from Companies House filings alone mixes solvent closures with company failures. We tell them apart using The London Gazette, which publishes each in its own section.
- Quarters
- Jul–Sep 2024 to Apr–Jun 2026
- Updated
- 13 October 2026
- Next update
- Monthly, from the 5th
Creditors’ voluntary liquidations have been broadly flat. Members’ voluntary liquidations swing from quarter to quarter, rising before changes to Business Asset Disposal Relief, and account for the apparent surges in liquidations.
England and Wales, by quarter
Companies by the quarter their liquidation began.
- Creditors' voluntary liquidations (insolvent)
- Members' voluntary liquidations (solvent)
England and Wales
The creditors' voluntary liquidation figures leave out liquidations that followed an administration, which the Insolvency Service counts only as administrations, so they compare with the official statistics.
| Quarter | Creditors’ voluntary liquidations | Members’ voluntary liquidations (solvent) | Unconfirmed, excluded |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jul–Sep 2024 | 4,655 | 3,041 | 116 |
| Oct–Dec 2024 | 4,557 | 4,022 | 194 |
| Jan–Mar 2025 | 4,675 | 3,308 | 181 |
| Apr–Jun 2025 | 4,765 | 1,370 | 71 |
| Jul–Sep 2025 | 4,635 | 1,390 | 149 |
| Oct–Dec 2025 | 4,522 | 2,002 | 109 |
| Jan–Mar 2026 | 4,364 | 2,914 | 172 |
| Apr–Jun 2026 | 4,465 | 1,068 | 187 |
United Kingdom
All companies on the register, including those registered in Scotland and Northern Ireland, on the same basis.
| Quarter | Creditors’ voluntary liquidations | Members’ voluntary liquidations (solvent) | Unconfirmed, excluded |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jul–Sep 2024 | 4,829 | 3,214 | 116 |
| Oct–Dec 2024 | 4,708 | 4,260 | 195 |
| Jan–Mar 2025 | 4,814 | 3,469 | 181 |
| Apr–Jun 2025 | 4,941 | 1,443 | 71 |
| Jul–Sep 2025 | 4,779 | 1,487 | 149 |
| Oct–Dec 2025 | 4,716 | 2,107 | 109 |
| Jan–Mar 2026 | 4,497 | 3,103 | 172 |
| Apr–Jun 2026 | 4,615 | 1,146 | 187 |
Previous versions
The series is rebuilt every month, and recent quarters can move a little as late filings and Gazette notices arrive. Every version is kept, so a figure quoted from an earlier one can be checked. All versions are in one CSV file.
This is the first version, published 13 October 2026.
How these figures are compiled
Counting. Each figure is the number of companies whose liquidation began in the quarter: the date of the winding-up resolution for a voluntary liquidation. A company counts once per procedure in a quarter.
Telling the two apart. Companies House form 600, which records the appointment of the liquidator, is the same for both kinds of voluntary liquidation. We classify each case from the section of The London Gazette its notice appears in, or from the type of winding-up resolution filed the same day. Cases we cannot classify either way are counted separately as unconfirmed and left out of the creditors’ figures; they are a small share of each quarter.
Official basis. The Insolvency Service counts a company that moves from administration into a creditors’ voluntary liquidation as an administration only. Our creditors’ figures do the same. For 2025 our count for England and Wales is 18,597, within 0.4% of the Insolvency Service’s 18,525 (Company Insolvency Statistics, December 2025 release, provisional). The official statistics exclude members’ voluntary liquidations.
Complete quarters only. Filings reach the register over several weeks, so a quarter is published 61 days after it ends, by which time more than 99% of its cases have usually arrived. Recent quarters can still move slightly; earlier versions are kept above.
England and Wales. Companies registered in England and Wales, identified by company number. The United Kingdom table counts every company on the register.
Not on this page. Compulsory liquidations and administrations are in the download. We date them differently from the official statistics, so the counts are not directly comparable.
Sources. Companies House insolvency filings and The London Gazette, across every case on the register. No commercial data is used.