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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of recent trends in the proportion of late payments to SMEs.

The Government understands how important tackling late payment is, especially for smaller businesses. In due course, the Department will be publishing a call for evidence to understand the current trends and evidence on how late payments are affecting SMEs and to seek views on how the Government could go further to tackle the problem.