On Saturday 28 March, the Secretary of State for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy announced changes to the insolvency regime with the aim of keeping viable companies trading through the unprecedented challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Further to our update to the existing insolvency laws, whilst it appears from the recent government announcement that UK wrongful trading provisions may be retrospectively relaxed from 1 March for a three month period, directors should continue to have regard to their individual conduct, particularly given the increase of claims funded by the growing litigation funding market.
To Our Clients and Friends Memorandum March 30, 2020 Copyright © 2020 Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP A Delaware Limited Liability Partnership 1 COVID-19 Pandemic: Key UK Government and Bank of England Initiatives to Support Businesses * In light of the rapidly developing situation and government response, this memorandum is current as of March 29, 2020. The rapid transmission of COVID-19 around the world has had a transformative impact on economies, politics and societies. Europe and the United States, in particular, have now emerged as epicentres of the pandemic.
Not for the first time in the current pandemic crisis, the UK government has found itself playing catch up with other countries. Over the weekend the UK followed the lead of governments in Germany and Australia by announcing plans to introduce a temporary relaxation of the existing wrongful trading regime for company directors. It has also taken the opportunity to revive the previous government's plans to add to the existing UK insolvency law "toolkit" by introducing a new debtor-friendly restructuring law.
Wrongful trading
On 28 March 2020 the Secretary of State for BEIS, Alok Sharma, announced that changes would be made to the UK insolvency laws to help companies "…emerge intact the other side of the COVID-19 pandemic…to give them extra time and space to weather the storm and be ready when the crisis ends whilst ensuring creditors get the best returns possible in the circumstances".
On Saturday 28 March, the Secretary of State for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy announced changes to the insolvency regime with the aim of keeping viable companies trading through the unprecedented challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic.
On March 28, 2020[1], the UK Government announced that it will introduce new legislation extending the UK’s existing restructuring and insolvency laws to include:
The UK Government announced on Saturday 28 March 2020 that it intends to amend UK insolvency law to suspend the offence of wrongful trading by directors of UK companies and to give UK companies the breathing space to allow them to keep trading while they explore options for rescue.
Background
Current insolvency rules stipulate that directors of limited liability companies can become personally liable for business debts if they continue to trade when uncertain about whether their businesses can continue to meet their debts. These rules will be suspended.
Over the weekend, the Business Secretary announced that UK Insolvency Laws will be changed.
The changes will give businesses “extra time to weather the storm” and give comfort to directors who, challenged with trading through a difficult cash flow period, will not face claims for wrongful trading.
Relaxation of wrongful trading provisions
The proposed measures alleviate concerns that borrowing additional funds offered by the Government could place a director at risk of personal liability.
The changes?
On Saturday, during the Government’s daily Coronavirus update, it was announced that it would shortly legislate to: