Public law defences in winding up petitions under section 85 of the Finance Act 2022 (Re Purity Ltd)
Restructuring & Insolvency analysis: HMRC sought the winding up of a company on grounds of public interest under section 85 of the Finance Act 2022 (FA 2022). The petition was listed for trial. The company had, after presentation of the petition, made a judicial review application challenging HMRC’s decision to present the petition. It then applied for a stay of the winding up proceedings. This was on the basis that it could not rely on public law defences at the trial of the petition, since those could only properly be dealt with by the Administrative Court. It was held that petitions under FA 2022, s 85 should be treated similarly to public interest petitions under section 124 of the Insolvency Act 1986 (IA 1986), and that there was no restriction on what defences the company could advance. Therefore, it was not appropriate to grant a stay. Written by Nora Wannagat, barrister at Tanfield Chambers.