On 20 May, Parliament had its first reading of the Bill, a detailed document containing all the expected provisions applying across England, Wales and Scotland, and with separate (but substantially similar) provisions for Northern Ireland.
MPs will next consider all stages of the Bill on 3 June 2020 and it is anticipated that this will be fast-tracked to become law in July.
The extraordinary disruption to UK business caused by the COVID-19 lockdown has spawned much discussion about changes to existing insolvency laws to help businesses which are struggling to survive in this abnormal environment. One topic of discussion has been the so-called ‘light touch’ administration. Here we provide a quick overview of what this involves.
What do we mean by a ‘light touch’ administration?
It is now common knowledge that the Government has responded to the COVID-19 crisis with a number of protective measures, including the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), which provides support to businesses that cannot maintain their current workforce because their operations have been severely affected by COVID-19. Under the CJRS, employers can apply for a grant to cover 80% of the wages (up to £2,500 per month) of employees who are placed on furlough leave.
On 28 March 2020 the UK government announced that emergency measures will be implemented to provide protection to directors of companies which continue to trade notwithstanding the threat of insolvency, and to prevent, where possible, companies entering into insolvency due to COVID-19.
The proposed measures are as follows:
In June 2019 the Government announced a plan to introduce a new “breathing space” scheme to protect individuals and families struggling with problem debt and to give those individuals and families extra help and time to get their finances under control.
Despite discussion in 2019 about corporate insolvency reforms and the reintroduction of the Crown Preference for certain tax debts, the Queens Speech on 19 December 2019 did not indicate any concrete plans to legislate for these areas this year. Airline insolvency, however, has made the list for 2020.
Why is airline insolvency a priority?