Insolvency technical update: December 2025

Read our latest insolvency technical update – your round-up of the recent developments in insolvency.

Advance notification of redundancies - HR1

From 1 December 2024, the HR1 form is no longer able to be submitted in paper form. It must now be completed and submitted digitally via GOV.UK.

HMRC Insolvency Practitioners Handbook

HMRC has launched a new Insolvency Practitioners Handbook which consolidates existing guidance, including content from Insolvency VAT Notice 700/56 and IP Bulletins.

HMRC Insolvency Practitioner Bulletin

IP Bulletin 9 (2025) provides information about the introduction of a new way for contacting HMRC’s Member Voluntary Liquidation (MVL) team. 

Use of the guidance will become mandatory, but a transition period will be in place until 2 February 2026. After this date, HMRC has advised that any MVL-related emails that don’t follow the new guidance process won’t be actioned.

AiB Notes for Guidance (Common Financial Tool) update

Section 6.8 (Essential Expenditure) has been updated to reflect the increase in the gas and electricity price cap, effective from 1 January 2026. The limit for which no supporting evidence is required for utility spend has increased from £146 to £146.50 per month from 1 January 2026  to 31 March 2026.

Ethics CPD requirement

ICAS introduced a change to CPD requirements. From 1 January 2026, all non-retired members are required to complete 1 hour of mandatory ethics CPD each year. Find out more about how to record and confirm your annual ethics CPD, as well as some useful resources to get you started.