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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions she has had with the Interim Small Business Commissioner on giving the future, permanent post holder, powers of binding arbitration to ensure prompt payment for small businesses.

The Government is completely focussed on fulfilling our manifesto commitment to clamp down on late payment and strengthen the powers of the Small Business Commissioner (SBC) to support small businesses that are exploited by their larger partners.

Good progress is being made on the policies I announced in our Government Response to the 2018 Call for Evidence to assess what further steps and intervention may be needed to create a responsible payment culture, which included:

• consulting on the merits of strengthening the Commissioner’s existing powers, to assist and advocate for small businesses in the area of late payments; and
• strengthening and reforming the Prompt Payment Code and moving its administration to the Office of the SBC.

BEIS Officials work closely, and meet regularly, with the Interim Commissioner and his team and share any relevant policy developments, as set out in the Small Business Commissioner Framework Document.