Business payment practices and policies: duty to report
Download the full outcome
Detail of outcome
These documents set out the government response to the consultation responses received. They explain:
- which businesses will be in scope of the duty
- the ‘metrics’ against which businesses will need to report
- how and when businesses will need to report
- the sanctions for not reporting
The government response also includes revised draft regulations.
See the final guidance and the related research.
Feedback received
Detail of feedback received
We received 59 responses to the consultation. These mainly came from:
- business representative bodies
- trade organisations
- professional bodies
We also had responses from large businesses in the retail and construction industries. A full list of respondents is available in Annex 1 of the summary of responses.
Next steps
On 20 March 2015 we published plans for implementing the new report requirement.
Original consultation
Consultation description
We want to know if we should ask companies to report on a series of measurements that will tell us about their payment performance. We propose to include the:
- proportion of invoices that are paid beyond the payment terms
- proportion of invoices paid within 30 days
- proportion of invoices paid over 30, 60 and 120 days
- the average time taken to pay invoices
We also want your views on whether companies should also provide a statement that would help the supplier understand the company’s payment practices and performance.
These proposals would allow suppliers to compare different customers against a standardised time frame of payment. The reporting procedure would be easy for companies to understand and straightforward to complete. It would also provide useful data for suppliers to use.
Documents
Last updated 31 January 2017 + show all updates
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Added final impact assessments.
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Added governmnt response.
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Details of new prompt payment duty to report added.
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A summary of public responses has been added.
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First published.