Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the proportion of invoices his Department paid to small and medium-sized enterprises within five days in the 2021-2022 financial year.

BEIS publishes quarterly information on the overall percentage of all invoices (including SME invoices) paid within 5 to 30 days on GOV.UK. The BEIS payment performance for the financial year 2021-22 is that 87.24% of invoices were paid within 5 days.

The Procurement Bill currently progressing through the Commons contains a Clause (68) that will require all contracting authorities to publish specified information relating to invoice payments. BEIS will ensure that it continues to publish payment information and will comply with the new requirements once they are implemented.