Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department takes to ensure prompt payments by companies in receipt of defence contracts.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is committed to paying all of its suppliers promptly, and we place a contractual obligation on our prime contractors to pay their subcontractors within a 30 day period.

MOD payment performance is published on gov.uk at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/ministry-of-defence-supplier-invoicing-and-payment-information.

This shows that during the first quarter of 2016-17, the MOD paid 96.5% of its invoices within five days and 99.9% within 30 days.