More than 180 survivors of abuse by the former Harrods owner Mohammed Al Fayed are currently "engaged" in its compensation scheme, the company has said, BBC.com reported. The luxury retailer said it has already paid out compensation to more than 50 women. The scheme, which was opened last March, will close to new submissions on 31 March. In October, Harrods said it had set aside more than £60m in its plan to compensate victims of alleged historical abuse.

The UK-based launch services provider Orbex has entered insolvency proceedings after a planned takeover by European space logistics startup The Exploration Company fell through, EuropeanSpaceFlight.com reported. In December 2025, The Exploration Company entered negotiations to acquire Orbex.

An arts-based charity in Glasgow has officially declared itself insolvent. The remaining trustees of the Centre for Contemporary Arts (CCA) have published an insolvency notice, with a petition provided to the court on February 3 to Glasgow Sheriff Court, TFN.scot reported. Louise Dorothy Norris, Kirstine Mairi Ogg and Dr Paola Pasino applied to have the company wound up by the court. Parties have eight days from intimation of the notice - published on February 10 - to lodge an interest. Read more.

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority said Tuesday that it had begun legal proceedings against HTX, the crypto exchange founded by Tron creator Justin Sun, for “illegally promoting crypto asset services to UK consumers,” Decrypt.com reported. The action comes under rules enacted in October 2023 that mandate firms providing crypto services comply with measures to protect consumers from “unfair and misleading marketing.” The regulator said in a statement it had previously warned HTX, formerly known as Huobi, about its advertising in the UK.

The government has said it will spend £5bn to pay off 90% of the debts English councils have built up through supporting children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) to the end of the financial year, BBC.com reported. It comes days after the Local Government Association (LGA) warned that eight in 10 English councils would face bankruptcy, if they had to honour SEND deficits built up in recent years. The LGA, which represents councils in England, welcomed the plans, saying it "removes the immediate threat of insolvency for many councils".

Four in five English local authorities will be in effect bankrupted by rising special educational needs spending unless the government introduces significant reforms to the system, council leaders have said, The Guardian reported. Councils have called on ministers to write off special educational needs and disability (Send) deficits accumulated by local authorities over the past few years. These are projected to reach £14bn in two years’ time.

Business activity in Wales has shown mixed trends, with both rising insolvency-related activity and a growing number of start-ups, the South Wales Argus reported. According to R3, the trade body for restructuring and insolvency professionals, the region saw a 2.3 per cent increase in insolvency-related activity in 2025, rising from 844 cases in 2024 to 863 last year. At the same time, the number of new businesses grew by 8.7 per cent, from 21,036 to 22,863.

The UK’s tax office is seeking to block Waldorf Production from restructuring its liabilities in a London court, as the nation’s fiscal body takes an increasingly aggressive stance when it comes to debt collecting, Bloomberg News reported. The struggling oil and gas company owes His Majesty’s Revenue & Customs an estimated $72.4 million, court documents seen by Bloomberg show.

The Bank of England has held interest rates at 3.75% after a knife-edge vote but has opened the door to cuts later this year, BBC.com reported. Borrowing costs were widely expected to be unchanged after the Bank reduced them from 4% in December. Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey reiterated his forecast that inflation – which measures the pace of price growth - would fall close to the Bank's 2% target from April onwards, against a previous expectation it would hit that level in 2027. "That's good news," said Bailey. "We need to make sure that inflation stays there.