To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills if he will limit the circumstances in which creditors can petition for bankruptcy to cases of borrower fraud and cases where borrowers have wilfully or culpably neglected to engage with a creditor's demands for payment.

There are no plans to restrict the ability of creditors to petition for bankruptcy to the circumstances suggested. Protections already exist to ensure that bankruptcy is only used as a remedy when genuine recovery attempts have proved to be unsuccessful.

Legislative provisions exist to enable the court to take account of reasonable offers for payment that have been made by the debtor. There is no evidence to suggest that the bankruptcy system is being abused by creditors unwilling to consider such offers and the proportion of bankruptcy orders made on creditors' petitions has remained steady in recent years.