Liquidations north of border up by 35%

The number of Scottish companies collapsing into liquidation has jumped by more than one-third in a year, official figures show.

The Insolvency Service said 377 firms suffered the fate during the first three months of 2012, up 35% from 279 in the same period last year.

The latest figure is also higher than the 290 recorded in the final quarter of 2011.

Of the 377 firms going bust inthe latest period, 311 were compulsory liquidations and the remainder were voluntary.

Bryan Jackson, corporate-recovery partner at accountantpkf, saidmany of the failed companies were from the construction or hospitality sectors.

He added: “These figures show an economy which hasnever reallycomeout of recession but has instead simply bumped along the bottom for many years now. Unfortunately, I cannot see the situation improving for several years . . . and I believe that these record high company failure rates will continue.”

The Insolvency Service said the number of individuals who became insolvent also increased in the first quarter of 2012 to 4,856, up 13.6% on the same period last year.

But the number of sequestrations – the term used for bankruptcies north of the border – was down 3.3% in the latest quarter to 2,609. The other insolvencies cover protected trust deeds, which rose 42.7% to 2,247.