Threads / Small Business Protections (Late Payments) Bill / Business payment practices and policies: duty to report
Consultation Outcome Published 31 Jan 2017 Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy ↗ View on GOV.UK

Business payment practices and policies: duty to report

We’re asking for views on our proposals to make companies report on their payment performance to help create responsible payment practices.

Opened 27 Nov 2014
Closed 2 Feb 2015
▤ Verbatim text from source document

We want to know if we should ask companies to report on a series of measurements that will tell us about their payment performance. We propose to include the:

  • proportion of invoices that are paid beyond the payment terms
  • proportion of invoices paid within 30 days
  • proportion of invoices paid over 30, 60 and 120 days
  • the average time taken to pay invoices

We also want your views on whether companies should also provide a statement that would help the supplier understand the company’s payment practices and performance.

These proposals would allow suppliers to compare different customers against a standardised time frame of payment. The reporting procedure would be easy for companies to understand and straightforward to complete. It would also provide useful data for suppliers to use.