Creating a Responsible Payment Culture: A Call for Evidence in Tackling Late Payment

The Government is building an environment in which small and medium-sized businesses can continue to prosper, tackling the continuing issue of late payments is vital for this to happen. Businesses with good credit and cash flow management build a positive relationship with their creditors and free up cash to invest in growth and innovation. We are also interested in business views on the length of payment terms. In recent years the Government has taken steps to tackle the problem of late payment, introducing measures such as the Small Business Commissioner to deal with small businesses’ late payment disputes and providing small businesses with better information on businesses they intend to trade with through the Payment Practices Reporting Regulations. As of 2017, t he amount owed to smaller businesses in late payments more than halved from the previous five years but we understand the need to go further to tackle unfair payment practices. The level