Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of proposed changes to late payment policy on (a) small and medium-sized enterprises and (b) larger businesses; and whether he plans to differentiate between transactions involving SMEs and those conducted solely between larger counterparties when introducing these changes.

On 24 March we published our response to the Late Payments Consultation, outlining legislative measures we will introduce to tackle the scourge of late payments which costs the UK economy £11 billion each year and leads to the closure of 38 businesses every day. In line with the Better Regulation Framework, we published an Impact Assessment that considers how our measures could impact businesses of all different sizes. We have carefully designed measures to tackle late payments whilst supporting UK competitiveness, including allowing an exemption from maximum payment terms for contracts where both parties are large companies.