GAZETTING AND ADVERTISING
March 2001
PART 1 – GAZETTING
NOTE: THIS PART IS ONLY APPLICABLE IN RELATION TO CASES WHERE THE PETITION WAS PRESENTED BEFORE 6 APRIL 2009
5B.1 Mandatory gazetting (amended June 2009)
The London Gazette is published every working day of the week and certain matters under the Insolvency Act 1986 and the Insolvency Rules 1986 (as amended) are required to be advertised in the Gazette ("gazetted") whilst others may be advertised in a newspaper and/or by individual notification to certain persons. The only matters which are required to be gazetted for which the official receiver is responsible are:
Notes:
[R4.21(4)(a)]
[R6.34(2)(c) or 6.46(2)(c) and R12.20(3)]
Where the official receiver is Gazetting a matter relating to a liquidation, the Gazette notice must contain the company’s registration number (“CRO”).
5B.2 Other matters to be gazetted
Certain other matters may have to be gazetted. These are:
Notes: [R6.35(2) or 6.47(2)(a)] [R6.213(3)(a) and R6.220(2)(a)]
5B.3 Official receiver to deal with requests to the SOS
Technically application by a bankrupt for an annulment or discharge order to be gazetted or advertised is made to the Secretary of State but in practice it is dealt with on his behalf by the official receiver. Pursuant to rule 6.213(4) or 6.220(3), the Secretary of State is required to notify a former bankrupt of the cost of the gazette notice if written request to gazette is received.
Notes: [R6.213(4) or 6.220(3)]
5B.4 Method of publication in the Gazette (April 2009)
The electronic system for producing gazettes means that the official receiver is only indirectly responsible for the production of gazette notices.
Having been created and forwarded electronically, the gazette notice (see Case Help Manual part on Publication of insolvency information for form numbers of various types of gazette notices) is automatically downloaded to a file that is monitored by CUST, then at 0500 hours each day the file is automatically formatted. It is then available for the Fees & Data Management (F&DM) team within Estate Accounts Services (EAS) to access and arrange for publication. Gazette notices will usually be published two working days after being sent for publication by the F&DM team.
5B.5 One gazette notice ONLY to be generated and printed off (April 2009)
Only one print of the gazette notice must be made and this should immediately be placed on the office file. If, for any reason, a gazette notice is duplicated, the information will be automatically downloaded and forwarded electronically again (see paragraph 5B.4), which will result in another gazette entry of the same information. If this should occur, contact by e-mail must be made with the F&DM team gpt.gazettestays@insolvency.gsi.gov.uk as soon as possible, to notify them of the error and request that the second entry be removed.
5B.6 Stay of proceedings or stay of advertisement (April 2009)
If the official receiver is notified of an order staying the proceedings or of an order for a stay of advertisement, or notice is received from the court of an application for any stay, the Gazette notice for publication must not be generated. If the notice has already been generated, every effort must be made to prevent publication.
Similarly, no advertisement of any insolvency event should be carried out.
See Chapter 6, Part 2 for further information on stays of proceedings or advertisement and Case Help Manual Parts on Stay of advertisement and Stay of Proceedings.
5B.7 Stay of advertisement (bankruptcy)
Where there is an order suspending action by the official receiver under rule 6.34(2) or 6.46(2) (preventing all publicity of a bankruptcy order) and as a result no gazetting or advertisement of the bankruptcy order has taken place, the former bankrupt can still request an annulment to be gazetted. There is no provision for advertisement in such a case, as rule 6.213(3)(b) provides for such an advertisement to be placed only in any newspaper in which the bankruptcy order was advertised.
The official receiver will need to be aware that rule 6.208 gives power to the court to make an interim order (in advance of a hearing for an annulment) staying any proceedings "which it thinks ought, in the circumstances of the application, to be stayed".
In the case of a stay of proceedings or of a stay of advertisement, Audit Section General Processing Team should be telephoned immediately.
Notes: [R6.34(3), 6.46(3) or 6.208]
5B.8 Insolvency practitioner appointed immediately order made
Where an insolvency practitioner is appointed as liquidator or trustee immediately upon the making of a winding-up order or a bankruptcy order, the official receiver is still responsible for the gazetting of those orders.
Notes: [s140, R4.21(4)(a) and s297, R6.34(2)(c) or 6.46(2)(c)]
Where a winding-up or bankruptcy order is transferred by one official receiver to another immediately upon the making of the relevant order, it is the responsibility of the receiving official receiver (who is now the case manager) to ensure that the insolvency order is gazetted.
5B.10 Court orders to be checked
Notices of orders received from the court should be examined for correctness. If there is doubt whether a notice should have been sent (eg where perhaps a stay has been overlooked) or there are inaccuracies, the official receiver should refer back to the court before taking any further action.
Notices are produced from LOIS; abbreviations should not be used.
Mistakes may occasionally be made in the entries in the Gazette as a result of a typing or printing error made by the official receiver. If the official receiver becomes aware of an error in a Gazette notice, he/she should make the appropriate amendment without delay so that an amended notice may be published. If the error is so trivial as to be of little or no consequence, (eg a minor spelling mistake not related to the bankrupt’s or company’s name, or a matter of punctuation), an amended notice will not be necessary. Rule 12.20(3) provides for the re-gazetting of notices wrongly or inaccurately gazetted.
The requirement to file copies of gazette notices and other advertisements at court was removed from the Rules in April 2009 as a result of the Insolvency (Amendment) Rules 2009. With effect from 6 April 2010, this applies to any notices appearing after that date regardless of the petition date
Notes: [R7.32] omitted by Insolvency (Amendment) Rules 2009 and transitional position amended by Insolvency (Amendment) Rules 2010
5B.14 Bankrupt in prison when petition presented
Courts have been advised by the Lord Chancellor’s Department of the difficulties which may arise where a bankrupt is in prison when the bankruptcy petition is presented and a reference to the prison appears in the petition. The court should delete any prison address which may appear in a petition under its general authority to amend proceedings at any time, so that the gazetted order will not contain reference to the prison address. (It is, however, acceptable for the address of a prison to appear in a petition for the purpose of bringing proceedings within the jurisdiction of a particular court.)
5B.15 Amendment of order (August 2008)
If an official receiver is sent notice of a bankruptcy order including a prison address, he should immediately refer it back to the court for amendment. The address should not be mentioned in the Gazette or in any subsequent notices, so as to avoid causing any embarrassment, particularly as the bankrupt may subsequently have been released from prison. See paragraph 5B.2(a) above and Chapter 4, paragraphs 4.19 to 4.20.
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