Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps her Department is taking to strengthen the powers of the small business commissioner in order to improve support for small businesses dealing with late payment issues.
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:
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.