Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the reasons for the change in the number of invoices his Department paid within 30 days in the 2017-18 financial year.

The move to a new shared service platform in May 2017 presented a number of operational issues. These issues included the migration of data relating to purchase orders and invoicing, staff knowledge of the new system and technical issues with a new chart of accounts.

We have been working hard to rectify the underlying issues and have implemented a number of improvements as part of a coordinated programme of work to ensure we pay our suppliers as soon as possible.