The UK's latest quarterly company insolvency statistics, including the 2020 annual summary, were published on 29 January, painting a picture of the effectiveness of government measures introduced over the past year to support companies during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In Uralkali v Rowley and another [2020] EWHC 3442 (Ch), the High Court confirmed that it is unlikely that an officeholder would be found to owe a duty of care to participants in a sale process out of an insolvent estate. This is an important decision which will give officeholder’s considerable comfort that operating an administration or liquidation sale in the ordinary course is unlikely to expose them to risk of liability to a bidder for the way the process is run.