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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of how much firms in construction supply chains have lost in unpaid retentions since they announced the review of the retention system in October 2015, subsequently published in October 2017.

The 2017 retentions consultation impact assessment estimated the total amount of retention monies unpaid to construction contractors across the whole construction contracting sector in England due to upstream insolvency at £229m per year in 2015 prices.

We continue to work with the construction industry and its clients to achieve a consensus on how to resolve the problems associated with cash retentions.