The Insolvency Service is to face an 11% cut in its running costs as part of the government's Department for Business Innovation and Skills' plans to save £100m during 2010-11.

R3 president Steven Law told PrintWeek: "This comes at a time when the number of cases of suspected misconduct by company directors has nearly doubled in 2009-10. Our members believe that, in more than half of the cases they put forward, the decision not to disqualify a director was wrong.

"It is a matter of public interest that the Insolvency Service has the resources to appropriately deal with all the cases they receive, the key areas of investigations and enforcement should be ring-fenced and the cuts imposed elsewhere within the Service. Company directors should not be able to act wrongfully without fear of repercussion."

However, according to Insolvency Service chief executive Stephen Speed, the organisation has reviewed plans for the year ahead and a "carefully considered" proposal has been put forward.

"Meeting this challenge has been difficult," he said. "It is inevitable that the cuts will, over time, lead to some reduction in the number of insolvency and live company investigations that we are able to pursue. 

"However, I can assure everyone that the service has very rigorous systems in place to ensure that our work is aimed at providing the maximum protection to the public and to businesses at all times."