Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Young of Cookham on 22 January (HL12843), what is their estimate of the total value of overdue payments owed to UK businesses in 2018; and what proportion of the total value they estimate is represented by the £1.7 million resolved by the Mystery Shopper Service in that period.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
The Public Procurement Review Service does not hold this data and is not able to estimate the total value of overdue payments owed to UK businesses. The service is only aware of the late payments owed to suppliers who contact PPRS for help. In 2018 the amount recovered for UK businesses in resolved cases totalled £1,706,377.13.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will publish the full responsibilities of Small Business Champion ministers; and whether they will publish a list of Small Business Champion ministers.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
SME Ministers act as advocates for small businesses on commercial issues in their department. Working with their Commercial Directors, they will ensure that the agenda has a high profile across their department, review departmental plans, and scrutinise progress.
The Chancellor for the Duchy of Lancaster chaired a roundtable with these Ministers in Summer 2018.
The current list of Small Business Champion ministers is in the table below.
Department | Minister | Remit |
HO | Baroness Williams | Minister of State for Countering Extremism and Minister for Equalities |
MoD | Stuart Andrew | Minister for Defence Procurement |
DIT | Graeme Stuart | Minister for Investment |
BEIS | Kelly Tolhurst | Minister for Small Business |
MHCLG | Rishi Sunak | Minister for Local Government |
DDCMS | Lord Ashton | Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State |
DfE | Lord Agnew | Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the School System |
Defra | George Eustice | Minister of State for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food |
FCO | Sir Alan Duncan | Minister of State for Europe and the Americas at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office |
DExEU | Kwasi Kwarteng | Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State |
DFID | Lord Bates | Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State |
MOJ | Rory Stewart | Minister of State for Prisons |
DfT | Baroness Sugg | Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport |
HMT | Robert Jenrick | Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury |
HMRC | Mel Stride | Financial Secretary to the Treasury |
DWP | Baroness Buscombe | Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Lords) |
NIO | John Penrose | Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Northern Ireland |
SO | Lord Duncan of Springbank | Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Scotland and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Northern Ireland |
DHSC | Steven Hammond | Minister of State for Health |
WO | Alun Cairns/Nigel Adams | Secretary of State for Wales/Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Wales Office) |
CO | Oliver Dowden | Minister for Implementation |
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government which public authorities have (1) complied, and (2) not complied with regulation 113 paragraphs (7) and (8) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, which require public authorities to publish data online regarding their late payment of invoices.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
All public bodies in scope of this regulation are responsible for publishing their own payment performance data. We do not currently hold this information centrally; however the Public Procurement Review Service plans to undertake a series of ‘spot checks’ on a number of public bodies to monitor compliance in coming months.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what processes are in place to monitor compliance with regulation 113 paragraphs (7) and (8) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 which require contracting bodies to publish data online regarding their late payment of invoices; and what assessment they have made of compliance with those Regulations by public authorities since 2015.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
All public bodies in scope of this regulation are responsible for publishing their own payment performance data. We do not currently hold this information centrally; however the Public Procurement Review Service plans to undertake a series of ‘spot checks’ on a number of public bodies to monitor compliance in coming months.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what criteria will be applied in relation to prompt payments in order to establish a company’s eligibility to be awarded Government contracts, once the prompt payment initiative comes into force.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
Guidance in Procurement Policy Note 04/18, published in November 2018 sets out how payment approaches can be taken into account in the procurement of central Government contracts (subject to the Public Contracts Regulations 2015) in excess of £5m per annum.
This policy note can be viewed at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/procurement-policy-note-0418-taking-account-of-a-suppliers-approach-to-payment-in-the-procurement-of-major-contracts.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made, if any, of the number of Government suppliers that will be prevented from winning future contracts once the prompt payment initiative comes into force.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
The decision to exclude a supplier from the procurement will be for the individual Contracting Authority to decide on a case by case basis depending on how a supplier responds to a range of questions relating to their payment practices and performance. Guidance for departments is set out in Procurement Policy Note 04/18.
This policy note can be viewed at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/procurement-policy-note-0418-taking-account-of-a-suppliers-approach-to-payment-in-the-procurement-of-major-contracts.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what evaluation they have undertaken of the Public Procurement Review Service; what the value of unpaid invoices reported to the Service was in 2018; and what proportion of those have now been resolved.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
In 2018 overdue payment cases reported to the service totalled £2,333,042.69. The total amount that have been resolved to date is £1,779,237.73. A total of £303,001.18 have subsequently been rejected or collapsed due the cases not being within the scope and remit of the service. Of the cases reported in 2018 a total value of £250,803.78 is outstanding.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what evaluation they have made of the role of the Public Procurement Review Service in speeding up payments to suppliers.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
Since the start of the Public Procurement Review Service (previously known as the Mystery Shopper Service), 226 late payment cases have been handled by the team. To date, in excess of £5.7m worth of late invoices have been unblocked by the service
The amount owed to smaller businesses in late payments has more than halved in the past five years, but we want to go further.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress they have made towards their target of spending one pound in every three with small and medium-sized enterprises by 2022; and what further action they intend to take to meet their target.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
In April 2018, the Minister for Implementation announced a package of new measures designed to level the playing field for smaller businesses bidding to win government contracts, including improving transparency to encourage large businesses to employ more SMEs in the supply chain, using Contracts Finder to advertise subcontracting opportunities and excluding suppliers from Government procurements if they cannot demonstrate adherence with prompt payment policy. The Government remains committed to its target of spending one pound in three with SMEs by 2022. Spend with SMEs for the 2017/18 financial year will be published in the near future.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what guidance they provide to public authorities to ensure that suppliers who pursue late payment claims against them are not disadvantaged in future public procurement exercises with those authorities.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
Guidance for central government departments, including their Executive Agencies and Non Departmental Public Bodies on prompt payment policy is available in Procurement Policy Note – Prompt Payment Policy and Reporting of Performance:
If a supplier feels that they are being disadvantaged in a procurement exercise having made a late payment claim against the contracting authority, contrary to relevant laws, they should raise this issue with the government’s Mystery Shopper service.