Commercial Debt: Late Payments

Baroness Burt of Solihull Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd February 2016 Lords Chamber

[The Earl of Courtown]

My Lords, my noble friend refers to the performance review in the Groceries Code Adjudicator Act. My noble friend will be glad to hear that consultation will be as wide as possible.

[Baroness Burt of Solihull (LD)]

My Lords, this report lifts the lid on the abuse suffered by suppliers at the hands of Tesco. On late payments, the Liberal Democrats urged the Government to impose statutory fines for repeat offenders in the Enterprise Bill, which was alluded to by Labour earlier. The Government refused, and the Small Business Commissioner, who the Minister has already mentioned, has barely any powers to tackle this scourge. In the light of this report today, and if the Government do not want to be perceived as having a deferential attitude towards big business, will they think again?

[The Earl of Courtown]

My Lords, I cannot answer for part of what the noble Baroness says, but, basically, the whole issue is for companies to treat their suppliers in a way that cuts down late payments. However, the noble Baroness is quite right to say that we are not going to impose sanctions as she described.