An insolvency practitioner works under three sets of obligations at once: the Insolvency Act 1986, the Insolvency Code of Ethics, and the rules of the professional body that authorises them. Once appointed, those obligations run to the creditors as a whole, not to the director who made the first phone call.
That is the single most useful thing for a director to understand before instructing one. The rest of this page sets out what each set of obligations requires.
How to tell a practitioner is allowed to act
Nobody may act as liquidator, administrator or supervisor of a voluntary arrangement without being qualified. Acting as a practitioner when not qualified is a criminal offence, punishable by imprisonment, a fine, or both. The only exception is the Official Receiver, a government officer who acts in compulsory liquidations and bankruptcies.
To be qualified, a practitioner must meet all of these conditions:
- Authorisation by a recognised professional body. Full authorisation covers companies, individuals and insolvent partnerships. Partial authorisation covers companies only, or individuals only.
- Security in place for the proper performance of their functions, usually a bond, which protects creditors if the practitioner fails in their duties.
- No disqualification. A practitioner cannot act while bankrupt, subject to a debt relief order, disqualified as a director, subject to a bankruptcy or debt relief restrictions order, or lacking mental capacity.
There are now three recognised professional bodies: the Insolvency Practitioners Association (IPA), the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS). ACCA gave up its recognition in March 2021, and Chartered Accountants Ireland gave up its recognition from 1 June 2025, so older lists that still name either body are out of date.
You can check any practitioner on the gov.uk practitioner search. Our page on licensed insolvency practitioners explains the qualification route in more detail.
What the Code of Ethics requires
Every practitioner must follow the code. A revised code took effect on 1 October 2025. It applies to all work on an insolvency appointment and to any work that may lead to one, so it applies at the first meeting with a director.
The code sets five fundamental principles: integrity, objectivity, professional competence and due care, confidentiality, and professional behaviour. It also requires the practitioner to identify threats to those principles before and during an appointment, and to decline the work where no safeguard can reduce a threat to an acceptable level.
Our page on the Code of Ethics explains the principles, the five kinds of threat and the rule on prior relationships with the company.
What changes once they are appointed
Appointment changes the practitioner’s role. As office-holder, they take control of the company’s affairs and answer to the creditors, the court where one is involved, and their authorising body. Three obligations shape what a director experiences:
- Duties to creditors as a whole. The office-holder must act in the creditors’ collective interest, independently of whoever proposed them. See fiduciary duties of insolvency practitioners.
- A report on the directors’ conduct. A liquidator or administrator must report to the Secretary of State on everyone who was a director, including a shadow director, in the three years before the insolvency. The report is due within three months.
- Required professional practice. Statements of Insolvency Practice, issued through the professional bodies, set out how practitioners must handle specific tasks, and the practitioner’s body monitors compliance. Fees are covered by their own rules: see insolvency practitioner fees.
Confidentiality is a real duty, but it has limits. A practitioner will not publish what you tell them. Once appointed, they cannot keep relevant information from the creditors or out of the conduct report.
Who oversees them, and how you complain
The authorising body monitors each practitioner, investigates complaints and can impose sanctions. The Insolvency Service oversees the three bodies on behalf of the Secretary of State.
In September 2023 the government decided not to create a single regulator for insolvency practitioners. It said it would give the Secretary of State responsibility for setting ethical and professional standards, bring firms as well as individuals into regulation, and create a public register. Those changes need legislation. As of the Insolvency Service’s 2025 annual review of practitioner regulation, they were still to come.
If something goes wrong, complain to the practitioner first. If that does not resolve it, the complaint goes to the authorising body through the Insolvency Complaints Gateway. It must normally concern something that happened, or that you first found out about, in the last three years. Our guide to complaints about practitioners sets out the process.
If you need a practitioner now
AABRS® is a firm of licensed insolvency practitioners. Before anyone is appointed, we can set out which procedure fits your company and what it will require of you as a director. Call 0208 444 3400.