The Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 introduces a range of changes to UK insolvency law of a magnitude not seen since the reforms of the Enterprise Act 2002. One of the reforms included in the Act is a wide ranging prohibition on the operation of termination clauses in contracts for the supply of goods and/or services where the counterparty enters a relevant insolvency process.

What do the provisions do?

Under the new provisions, suppliers will be prevented from:

The Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 (the Act) received royal assent on 25 June 2020 and is now in force.

On 4 September 2020, the High Court sanctioned a restructuring plan of Virgin Atlantic Airways Limited (Virgin) under the new Part 26A of the Companies Act 2006, brought in by the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 (CIGA); this is the first time the court has sanctioned a restructuring plan under the new Part 26A.

Corporate Insolvency: Temporary Measures extended

From 30 September 2020, The Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 (Coronavirus) (Extension of the Relevant Period) Regulations 2020 ("the Regulations") are in force.

The purpose of the Regulations is to extend certain of the temporary measures introduced by The Corporate Insolvency & Governance Act 2020 ("CIGA") to assist companies who are struggling to deal with the economic ramifications of COVID-19.

For litigators the most important provision is the extension of the restrictions on the use of statutory demands and winding up petitions until 31 December 2020. The Act, of course, provides that no winding up petition can be presented on the basis of a statutory demand during the relevant restricted period and that where a winding up petition is presented (by a creditor on any basis) a court must be satisfied that coronavirus has not had a "financial effect" on the company before the presentation of the petition.

The Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act (the “Act”) entered into force on 26 June 2020.

The Act makes three significant permanent reforms to our restructuring and insolvency regime, and also contains temporary measures designed to mitigate some of the economic and practical challenges of COVID-19. On 24 September 2020 the Government announced the extension of certain of the temporary provisions which had been due to expire on 30 September 2020.

In this update we provide a brief overview of the key restructuring and insolvency measures introduced by the Act.

The temporary measure allowing companies and other qualifying bodies to hold AGMs virtually will be extended until 30 December 2020. The measure, which was introduced as part of the UK Government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, had been due to expire on 30 September 2020.

Despite commentators’ recent focus on the new Part 26A restructuring plan, introduced in late June by the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020, the scheme of arrangement under Part 26 of the Companies Act 2006 (“scheme”) remains a popular tool for companies to reach a compromise or arrangement with their creditors and/or its members.

Along with tightening social controls, the months ahead will be defined by various critical relationships and the rules that govern them. Of course they all interlock: material change in any of them impacts each of the others. Which causes multiple complexities in decision-making and risk assessment processes, both within a business and when looking at critical suppliers and customers:

Landlords and Tenants:

In March 2020 the UK Government announced the suspension of the wrongful trading provisions contained in s.214 of the Insolvency Act 1986. Those provisions impose personal liability on directors found to have over-traded while a company was insolvent. By removing the risk of personal liability, the Government sought to provide directors with the personal protection they required to allow their businesses to continue trading through the pandemic.