The recent announcement that the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is to clamp down on debt sale scams has been welcomed by one organisation.

David Rodger, managing director of the Debt Advice Foundation, believes the regulations should help protect everyday consumers.

"It appears the type of companies who have been struck off are wide ranging, from personal injury claims through to financial products and services," he continued.

Mr Rodger said it was "encouraging" that the OFT was starting to take action against companies which fail to comply with the rules put in place to protect people.

Figures from the Insolvency Service show there were 33,073 individual insolvencies in England and Wales in the second quarter of 2009, marking an increase of 27.4 per cent on the same period a year ago.

In the 12 months ending in the second quarter of this year, around one in 120 active companies (or 0.8 per cent) went into liquidation, which is up slightly on the previous quarter when the figure was an estimated one in 130.