Levels of individual and corporate insolvencies in England and Wales fell at the end of the last year, according to the latest figures from the Insolvency Service.

There were 24,282 individual insolvencies in Q4 2013, a drop of 4.6% compared with the same period in 2012. This was made up of 5,386 bankruptcies (which were down 22.2% on the corresponding quarter of the previous year), 6,563 Debt Relief Orders (down 13.1% over the same period) and 12,333 Individual Voluntary Arrangements, which were up 12.3% over the period.

In total, there were 101,049 individual insolvencies in calendar year 2013 - the lowest level since 2005 according to the Insolvency Service.

Mark Sands, personal insolvency partner at Baker Tilly said: 'With the lowest number of personal insolvencies for eight years, the good news is that we're back to pre-crash levels and we expect this to signal some stability going forward. However, our own figures indicate that there continues to be a significant north-south divide with London registering only 15 personal insolvencies per 10,000 people, while the North East is double that figure at 30.'

The Insolvency Service's corporate insolvency statistics show there were 3,552 compulsory liquidations and creditors' voluntary liquidations in total in England and Wales in Q4 2013). This was a decrease of 7.4% on the previous quarter, and 7.1% less than the same quarter in 2012. This was made up of 692 compulsory liquidations (down 26.7% on the previous quarter and down 25.8% on the fourth quarter of 2012), and 2,860 creditors' voluntary liquidations (which were down 1.1% on the previous quarter and down 1.0% on the corresponding quarter of the previous year).

Additionally, there were 1,001 other corporate insolvencies in the fourth quarter of 2013 comprising 236 receiverships, 642 administrations and 123 company voluntary arrangements. In total these represented a decrease of 0.6% on the same period in 2012.

Graham Bushby, Baker Tilly's head of restructuring and recovery said: 'The latest figures from the Insolvency Service show a welcome decline in corporate insolvencies in the last quarter. Our own figures suggest that there has been a widespread improvement across a number of sectors with a particularly significant decline in the failure rate of construction businesses compared to the same period last year.'