Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the proportion of invoices her Department paid to small and medium-sized enterprises within five days in the 2021-2022 financial year.

The proportion of private sector invoices paid within five days and 30 days is published quarterly and can be viewed at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/defra-prompt-payment-performance-report.

Defra is not able to accurately identify small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in our supplier data and therefore we report on all payments of private sector invoices.

The Procurement Bill, currently passing through Parliament, will create a simpler and more transparent procurement regime that will further open up public procurement to SMEs. The Bill includes a new duty on contracting authorities to have regard to the particular barriers facing SMEs.

Specifically, the Procurement Bill will imply 30-day payment terms into every sub-contract that is substantially for the purpose of performing a public contract. This will ensure SMEs at every tier of the public supply chain can benefit from faster payments, even if 30-day terms are not explicitly written into the contract.