Oliver Heald:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what proportion of invoices from small and medium-sized businesses were paid by her Department within five working days of receipt in the last 12 months for which figures are available. [63564]
Richard Benyon:
The Department does not currently distinguish SMEs when measuring performance on paying invoices within five working days.
The performance of the Department and its Executive agencies for payments to all suppliers for the financial year 2010-11 is shown in the following table:
Within five days average full year
Percentage
DEFRA
66.3
FERA
75.6
VMD
83.4
CEFAS
53.3
RPA
97.9
AH
96.1
VLA
75.1