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Bankruptcy

Anne Main: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many individuals were declared bankrupt in (a) St Albans constituency, (b) Hertfordshire, (c) the East of England and (d) England and Wales in each of the last 12 months for which information is available. [254226]

Mr. McFadden: Table 1 following shows the number of bankruptcies in (a) St. Albans constituency, (b) Hertfordshire, (c) the East of England and (d) England and Wales in each month of 2007, derived from postcodes provided by bankrupt individuals^(1,2).

12 Feb 2009 : Column 2285W

Table 1
2007	St. Albans constituency	Hertfordshire	East of England	England and Wales
January	13	117	646	5,600
February	8	111	636	5,637
March	11	121	716	6,700
April	7	88	630	5,305
May	3	96	566	5,647
June	11	107	597	5,537
July	8	93	597	5,453
August	12	104	571	5,309
September	12	101	524	4,838
October	5	92	573	5,416
November	4	100	629	5,408
December	4	75	449	3,630
Total	98	1,205	7,134	64,480

⁽¹⁾ Classifying bankrupts into administrative geographies is done using the postcode that the bankrupt individual provides. The use of this in assigning an individual to a borough is thus only as reliable as the postcode information provided.

⁽²⁾ In particular, inaccurate or missing postcodes mean that the numbers in the aforementioned table will be subject to an element of missing data. Nationally, this proportion has been decreasing from about 12 per cent. in 2000 to less than 4 per cent. in 2007.

Mr. Vara: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many people have applied for (a) bankruptcy and (b) an individual voluntary arrangement in (i) North West Cambridgeshire, (ii) Cambridgeshire, (iiii) the East of England and (iv) England and Wales in each of the last 10 years. [254863]

Mr. McFadden: The following tables show the number of bankruptcies (table A) and individual voluntary arrangements (IVAs) (table B) in (i) North West Cambridgeshire constituency, (ii) Cambridgeshire, (iii) the East of England and (iv) England and Wales in each year between 2000 and 2007. This information is derived from postcodes provided by bankrupt individuals^(1,2). Earlier figures are not available on this basis and figures for 2008 are not yet available.

Table A: Bankruptcies
	North West Cambridgeshire constituency	Cambridgeshire	East of England	England and Wales( 1)
2000	41	193	2,014	21,550
2001	54	252	2,471	23,477
2002	42	216	2,463	24,292
2003	58	294	2,998	28,021
2004	74	391	3,854	35,898
2005	88	527	5,346	47,291
2006	114	661	7,015	62,956
2007	140	686	7,134	64,480

Table B: IVAs
	North West Cambridgeshire constituency	Cambridgeshire	East of England	England and Wales( 1)
2000	13	81	616	7,978
2001	18	73	532	6,298
2002	16	61	547	6,295
2003	7	70	617	7,583
2004	26	113	991	10,752
2005	57	257	2,200	20,293
2006	116	469	4,761	44,332
2007	109	424	4,445	42,165
(1) Figures for England and Wales are the official, published totals.

⁽¹⁾ Classifying bankrupts and IVAs into administrative geographies is done using the postcode that the insolvent individual provides. The use of this in assigning an individual to a borough is thus only as reliable as the postcode information provided.

⁽²⁾ In particular, inaccurate or missing postcodes mean that the numbers in the above table will be subject to an element of missing data. Nationally, this proportion has been decreasing from about 12 per cent. in 2000 to less than 4 per cent. in 2007.

12 Feb 2009 : Column 2286W

Bankruptcy: Cambridgeshire

Mr. Paice: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many businesses in Cambridgeshire were declared bankrupt in each of the last 12 months. [250238]

Mr. McFadden: Self-employed traders may be declared bankrupt (or enter into an individual voluntary arrangement (IVA)), however, registered companies are the subject of liquidation (compulsory liquidation or creditors voluntary liquidation (CVL)).

It is not currently possible, from information held centrally in electronic format, to count the number of insolvent companies in Cambridgeshire. However the following table shows the number of self-employed bankrupts in each month of 2007 (the latest for which information is currently available for Cambridgeshire), derived from postcodes provided by bankrupt individuals^(1,2).

Cambridgeshire self-employed bankrupts in 2007
	Number
January	7
February	9
March	10
April	3
May	2
June	7
July	5
August	3
September	5
October	0
November	7
December	5
(1) Classifying bankrupts into administrative geographies is done using the postcode that the bankrupt individual provides. The use of this in assigning an individual to a borough is thus only as reliable as the postcode information provided. (2) In particular, inaccurate or missing postcodes mean that the numbers in the above table will be subject to an element of missing data. Nationally, this proportion has been decreasing from about 12 per cent. in 2000 to less than 4 per cent. in 2007.

Similar information is not available for individual voluntary arrangements entered into by the self-employed.

Broadband

Mr. Crabb: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform when he expects broadband internet access to be available for everybody who wants it nationwide. [249017]

Mr. McFadden: Broadband internet is available now to over 99 per cent. of households connected to a broadband enabled telephone exchange and broadband via satellite is geographically available nationwide.

Mr. Crabb: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how much his Department has spent on enabling broadband internet access in each year since 1997. [249210]

Mr. McFadden: The Department has directly spent around £47 million on enabling broadband internet access since 1997, this excludes spending by the Department’s agencies and non-departmental public
12 Feb 2009 : Column 2287W
bodies. This funding was to encourage ‘1st generation’ broadband take up. The breakdown of the spending is set out as follows.

UK Broadband Fund: £30 million for projects to encourage broadband roll out in the regions across the UK from 2002-05

Broadband Task Force: £86,000 from 2004-05

Broadband Aggregation: £17 million from 2003-05

Community Broadband Network: Part funding of £30,000 in 2004

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