The UK’s largest companies experienced the largest fall in insolvencies compared to any other business size in May.

According to Experian’s latest Business Insolvency Index, those employing over 501 employees saw a fall in insolvencies from 0.16% in May last year to 0.10% in May this year and those companies employing 101-500 employees saw the insolvency rate decrease from 0.14% to 0.10% year on year.

Overall, out of 1,674 UK companies, 0.09% of the active business community became insolvent in May 2011, compared to 1,491 companies (0.08%) in the same period in 2010.

The South West experienced a fall in business insolvencies with just 0.06% of firms failing in May, compared to 0.07% the year before.

However, the eastern parts of the country witnessed a less positive picture against this time last year. The East Midlands saw the largest increase in failures, rising to 0.10% in May from 0.07% last year, while insolvencies also increased in the North East, Yorkshire, East Anglia and South East.

Yorkshire recorded the highest level of insolvencies, with 0.13% of the business population failing, up from 0.11% in May 2010.

Max Firth, managing director of business information services at Experian UK & Ireland, said: “The increase in insolvencies was relatively small and at 0.09%