Administrations in England and Wales fell by 32% from 4,161 in 2009 to 2,831 in 2010. Leading the way in the recovery was the manufacturing sector, down by 37% from 761 for the full year in 2009 to 477 in 2010.

Q4 in 2010 across all sectors was another recovery quarter – compared with Q4 2009, administrations fell by 24%.

Commenting on the figures Bruce Mackay, partner at Baker Tilly Restructuring and Recovery says: “For UK PLC, this has to be good news overall – particularly in manufacturing.

“Looking ahead though, the recovery remains fragile. There is likely to be a time-lag effect which could hit the Q1 stats this year – with the impact of 0.5% negative GDP growth in Q4 2010, record bad weather and jobs uncertainty yet to be seen in full.

“Also the potential impact of the public spending cuts has yet to really start to bite in the corporate insolvency stats.”