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12 Feb 2009 : Column 2284W—continued

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


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.


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.


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