Oliver Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what proportion of invoices from small and medium-sized businesses were paid by his Department within five working days of receipt in the last 12 months for which figures are available.
Mr Davey: In May 2010 a new cross Government target was introduced that required Departments to pay at least 80% of valid invoices within five working days. The previous target was payment within 10 working days. Over the last 12 months (July 2010 to June 2011 inclusive), the Department has exceeded the 80% target and has paid 95.3% of valid invoices within five working days of receipt.
For information, the Department publishes its monthly payment performance against the five working day target and this can be found at:
http://www.bis.gov.uk/about/procurement/prompt-payment/bis-payment-perf…
The Department does not currently record and publish information about the size of suppliers as this does not fully reflect the number and size of businesses engaged in supplying goods and services. We do not discriminate by size of business because many SMEs can be found within larger supply chains.