The costs and expenses properly incurred by an insolvency practitioner in the course of their appointment over an insolvent estate in an insolvency process. Insolvency expenses are paid out of asset realisations before any distribution to the holders of floating charges or unsecured creditors. What ranks as an insolvency expense is defined by:

For completeness note that the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 also introduced a set of super-priority debts that rank above most insolvency expenses for a short time period where a Part A1 moratorium is followed by a subsequent insolvency procedure. For more information, see Practice note, The moratorium under Part A1 of the Insolvency Act 1986: Which moratorium-related debts get special treatment in a subsequent insolvency or restructuring proposed within 12 weeks?

For more on the order of distributions in corporate insolvency, see Practice note, How are assets distributed to creditors in corporate insolvency procedures?