 This year Insolvency Live will be taking place on Tuesday 28 September. We are looking to host a hybrid event with guests given the option to either join us at our office in Stratford London or online. Details will follow later in the year. Please contact stakeholder@insolvency.gov.uk to register your interest in the event. Suggestions on what you would like to hear about at the event are also welcome. | We're pleased to welcome our new Board Chair, Mark Austen, and Non-Executive Directors Gary Kildare, Samantha Durrant and Rob Hunt. The new team bring significant experience from the public and private sector that will be invaluable as we support the country's pandemic recovery. We are pleased to report that the Debt Respite Scheme (Breathing Space) launched successfully on 4 May in line with legislation and planned delivery. Breathing Space will give a person in problem debt vital access to professional advice and a crucial 60 days of 'breathing space' to consider the best way forward and an appropriate debt solution for their circumstances. People across England and Wales who are struggling to repay their debts could be eligible, and the Government expects up to 700,000 people to benefit in the first year of the scheme. The Insolvency Service worked jointly in collaboration with HM Treasury and other government departments, as well as both the Creditor and Money Advice sectors to deliver this vital service for citizens. Around 500 money advice organisations can now offer breathing space to their clients and over 1200 creditor organisations are signed up to use the electronic service. Since the service launched, and to date, 6,250 breathing space submissions have been made. You can read more about Breathing Space in the press release issued by HM Treasury and the Insolvency Service. The Insolvency Service will be given powers to investigate directors of companies that have been dissolved, acting as a strong deterrent against the misuse of the dissolution process. The measures included in the Ratings (Coronavirus) and Directors Disqualification (Dissolved Companies) Bill will be retrospective. This measure extends the investigative powers of the Insolvency Service to include former directors of dissolved companies. Extension of the power to investigate also includes the relevant sanctions such as disqualification from acting as a company director for a period of time. The ability to disqualify unfit directors is vital to protect the business community and members of the public from individuals who have demonstrated that they are unfit to be concerned in the management of a limited company. It is also an important deterrent to directors abusing the benefit of limited liability, and in this respect is part of a suite of measures contained in company, insolvency, and governance legislation designed to protect creditors. Extending the disqualification regime to former directors of dissolved companies will also act as a strong deterrent against using the dissolution process as a method of fraudulently avoiding repayment of Government backed loans given to businesses to support them during the Coronavirus pandemic. This includes loans made under the Bounce Back Loans Scheme and represents part of the package of measures designed to combat Bounce Back Loan fraud announced by the Chancellor in Budget 2021. A new version of the IVA protocol has been published. Insolvency practitioners who administer IVAs are being given advance warning of the updated protocol so that they can update their systems and procedures, as well as train their staff, before IVAs drafted compliant with the 2016 protocol will no longer be proposed to creditors after 21 July 2021. We've published our Technical Guidance for Official Receivers on Gov.uk. The guidance replaces the previous format published as the 'Technical Manual'. Bankrupt fraudulently secured £26,000 credit for dissolved business then claimed the debtor was a man in Malta. Cardiff director who illegally managed several companies during his 8-year ban has been sentenced. Harlow director disqualified for 7 years after he cleared the bank account of a letting company following its liquidation. Brothers James and William Moir join their father as disqualified directors after £14m worth of investments were taken for holiday chalets never built or owned. Banned roofers sentenced after being caught illegally running a company, while also leaving one family without a roof having run off with their money. | 
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