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 encourage businesses to become signatories to the Prompt Payment Code.

The Government supports the Prompt Payment Code as an industry-led and voluntary set of best-practice principles. We work closely with the Chartered Institute of Credit Management (CICM), who administer the Code, in encouraging organisations to sign up to the Code. Furthermore, the Department has now launched a call for evidence seeking views on how we can build on the government’s existing late payment policies, including the Prompt Payment Code, to drive an end to late payments.