Oliver Heald (North East Hertfordshire, Conservative)
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland 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.
Owen Paterson (Secretary of State, Northern Ireland; North Shropshire, Conservative)
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. For example, many SMEs can be found within larger supply chains.
During the 12 months to the end of May 2011 a total of 10,449 invoices were received by the Department. 40% of these were paid within five working days of receipt, and 97.5% were paid within 10 working days of receipt.