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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Neville-Rolfe on 11 May 2016 (HL8016), what further progress has been made towards appointing the proposed Small Business Commissioner to help small businesses resolve payment disputes with large businesses.

We expect to appoint the Commissioner in 2017 and we continue to make progress on implementation. Our public consultation on the policy for regulations underpinning the Commissioner’s complaints handling function closed in December and we are preparing the Government Response.