Oliver Heald (North East Hertfordshire, Conservative)
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice 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.
Kenneth Clarke (Lord Chancellor, Secretary of State, Justice; Rushcliffe, Conservative)
For the 12 month period from June 2010 to May 2011, the Ministry of Justice paid 81.9% of all invoices within five working days of receipt of the invoice.
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.
Details of the Ministry's prompt payment performance are publicly available on the MOJ website at:
http://www.justice.gov.uk/about/procurement-and-commercial/payment-performance.htm