A procedure under the Insolvency Act 1986 whereby a company may be reorganised or its assets realised with the benefit of a statutory moratorium and under the control of an administrator who must try to achieve one or more of three objectives laid down by statute. By the end of the administration, the business may have survived and the company been rescued but usually the business and the company's assets will have been sold and the administration ended in a liquidation or dissolution. A company may be put into administration by court order or by an out-of-court procedure available to the company itself, its directors or a qualifying floating charge holder.

For an overview of the administration process, see Practice note, Administration.