Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average length of time was for invoices to be paid by Gov Facility Services Limited in each month since it was established.

The Ministry of Justice, through Government Facility Services Limited (GFSL), has met with a wide range of suppliers as part of transitioning the HMPPS Facilities Management contracts. The MoJ took the decision early to manage suppliers to mitigate exposure and protect the supply chain, and have looked to support these suppliers wherever possible and have been in regular contact with the supply chain. Given the number of suppliers concerned, the Department doesn’t keep a record of which former Carillion suppliers it has met with. The MoJ is committed to working with SME’s and is already close to achieving the Government 2020 target.

To expedite the creation of GFSL a decision was taken to mobilise the MOJ infrastructure to ensure that at the point of Carillion entering Provisional Liquidation a process was in place to take on this work directly, mitigate continued exposure to the supply chain and ensure continuity of service. GFSL are currently working with the MOJ to review the interim process and move towards a revised operating model. The proposed approach will continue to see a reliance on the private sector and in particular SME providers.

The Ministry of Justice is aware of a limited number of redundancies made by SMEs, however it is not able to determine if these directly relate to goods or services provided by Carillion to the Department

Government Facility Services Limited (GFSL) is currently being supported by the Ministry of Justice in respect of contracts with the supply chain. Following Carillion entering Provisional Liquidation the majority of purchasing was undertaken via the MoJ to ensure stable supply chain arrangements remained in place. This will move across to GFSL later this year. GFSL intends to pay its suppliers promptly and will take steps to ensure compliance with the Prompt Payment Code.

The performance statistics of the MoJ in respect of paying invoices can be found via: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/procurement#our-payment-performance