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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps the Government is taking to tackle incidents of late payments to small and medium-sized enterprises by larger businesses.

The Government knows how important tackling late payment is, especially for smaller businesses. We have recently introduced a number of measures to improve payment practices, specifically for small and medium-sized enterprises.

The Reporting on Payment Practices and Performance Regulations 2017 came in to force this year. This statutory requirement increases transparency, providing small and medium-sized businesses with better information about the payment practices of large businesses they intend to trade with.

The recently announced Small Business Commissioner builds on a package of measures to tackle late payment and unfavourable payment practices in the private sector. The Commissioner will empower small businesses to resolve payment disputes with larger businesses and avoid future issues by encouraging a culture change in payment practices and how businesses deal with each other.