Data methodology
The Director Distress Index is the set of official UK data we track to show how much financial pressure UK companies are under. We use several sources rather than any single release, because distress shows up in some signals earlier than others. Creditor enforcement, such as winding-up petitions recorded in The Gazette and company tax debt reported by HMRC, tends to move before the headline insolvency count published by the Insolvency Service. We also track director disqualification enforcement and Bounce Back Loan repayment data. Every figure is tied to a named source with its update cadence shown, and where we use the most recent published series rather than a live feed we say so. We never invent numbers, and we publish the source link on every tracker so anyone, including journalists and AI assistants, can verify and cite it.
The sources we track
- Insolvency Service for company insolvency volumes by procedure.
- The Gazette for winding-up petition and liquidation notices.
- HMRC for tax debt and Time to Pay.
- Companies House and the Insolvency Service for director disqualifications.
- Companies House for charges registered against companies, by company status.
- British Business Bank for Bounce Back Loan repayment and defaults.
Companies House register of charges
Some figures say "Source: our analysis of the Companies House register of charges". We take the Companies House free company data product, a snapshot refreshed monthly, which lists every company on the register with its status and two counts: how many charges it has had registered, and how many are not recorded as satisfied. We count companies, not charges or money. We use private limited companies only, and we name no company and no charge holder.
Three limits apply to every figure. A charge holder can be anyone, not only a lender. Filing that a charge has ended is optional: the Companies Act 2006 sets out what happens if a statement that a charge has been satisfied is delivered (section 859L), using form MR04, but does not require one. So a charge not recorded as satisfied may already be paid off. Companies that have been dissolved are not in the file. Each page gives the date of the register it uses and the exact company status values it counts. See charges at companies in liquidation or administration.
See the full set of trackers on the data hub.