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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate she has made of the number of businesses that went into administration as a result of the cashflows of those businesses being affected by outstanding invoices in the latest period for which such information is available.

The Insolvency Service publishes National Statistics on the total number of companies entering administration each calendar quarter at www.gov.uk and details of the circumstances leading to each administration must be provided by the administrator in the form of documents filed with Companies House.

The Government is completely focused on fulfilling its manifesto commitment to clamp down on late payments as part of its aim of making the UK the best place to work and grow a business. This includes strengthening the powers of the Small Business Commissioner to support small businesses that are exploited by their larger partners, strengthening the Prompt Payment Code, taking a tougher compliance approach with larger companies which includes greater transparency reporting requirements, and reviewing the role supply chain finance plays in prompt payment.