CIVIL servants were informed that a courier firm was at risk two weeks before City Link’s collapse — although their requests for the company’s name were rejected.

The Insolvency Service was first notified about the situation of a “national logistics firm” on December 9 and passed the details to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) on December 10, Matthew Hancock said yesterday.

But the Business Minister said the company’s name was deemed “commercially sensitive.”

BIS was contacted by Better Capital on December 23 to inform the department they intended to put City Link into administration on December 24.

Coventry-based City Link stopped accepting new parcels on December 24 and called in administrators after years of “substantial losses.”