Statutory order of priority

A company has gone into liquidation. After realising the assets, the liquidator holds funds and must distribute them. The estate includes assets that were subject to a qualifying floating charge granted to the company's bank, as well as other free assets. There are unpaid employee wage claims that rank as preferential, the liquidator's own fees and expenses, and a large body of ordinary unsecured trade creditors. The bank's floating charge was created after the relevant statutory reforms came into force. The liquidator asks, as a matter of the statutory order, which class is paid first out of the assets available for distribution.