Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of undisputed invoices her Department and its agencies and non-departmental public bodies paid within five days in the last period for which figures are available.

The Department for Education and Education Funding Agency (EFA) report this information via their Annual Report and Accounts. Both links are below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dfe-consolidated-annual-report-and-accounts-2013-to-2014

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/efa-annual-report-and-accounts-1-april-2013-to-31-march-2014

From the first link above, on Page 57 the core Department reports 86.2% of undisputed invoices were paid within 5 calendar days during the 2013 to 2014 financial year. The Government’s target is to pay 80% of undisputed invoices within five days. The core Department is performing above this target.

From the second link above, on Page 44 the EFA reports 33% of invoices were paid within 5 calendar days during the 2013 to 2014 financial year. The EFA does not differentiate between valid and invalid invoices. This explains the lower performance figure as the majority of invoices received did not meet the “submitted correctly requirement”. The EFA is taking action to resolve these issues and there has been significant improvement, with 50% of invoices paid within five days in the final quarter of the year.

The information requested is not available for all of our agencies and non-departmental public bodies as there is no current requirement for them to report on their prompt payment performance.