The number of UK companies going in to liquidation in the final three months of 2012 was the lowest at any time since the second quarter of 2008, figures from the government’s Insolvency Service released today show.

In fact, the provisional total of companies going under in England and Wales in Q4 2012 was 3,689, the exact same total as was seen in Q2 2008.

This most recent round of liquidations represented 0.7% of all UK companies, a lower rate than had been seen throughout 2009 to 2011.

However, the total number of firms going under across the year was, at 16,138, still higher than the figure for 2008 (15,535) and marginally above 2010’s total of 16,045, but much reduced from the 19,077.

The number of compulsory liquidations in Q4 2012 was 949, the only time the figure has been below 1,000 since 2003, with the year-long compulsory liquidations total also at a 10-year low.