Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of research by the Federation of Small Business which found that 17 per cent of small businesses claim mistreatment by larger firms that they supply; and if he will make a statement.

The Government is taking forward a suite of measures to help redress the imbalance between small businesses and the large firms that they supply. We are working closely with our stakeholders, including the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), to develop the evidence base on poor payment practices.

Our on-going consultation on introducing a new reporting requirement for large companies on their payment practices, the “Duty to Report” consultation, will strengthen the evidence on how widespread some of the payment practices identified by the FSB are, and on what further action the Government should take. The FSB’s research will contribute to our wider assessment on these issues.