Oliver Heald:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education 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.
Tim Loughton:
The Department does not currently record within its finance systems information about the size of its suppliers. The Department is working with our shared service provider to explore ways to provide more comprehensive reporting in particular on small and medium-sized employers.
For the period June 2010 to May 2011 a total number of 48,464 invoices were processed and paid on behalf of the Department by our shared services provider, of which 78% were paid within the Government's target of payment within five days.