Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what requirements his Department and its agencies and non-departmental public bodies place on suppliers in respect of their payment terms to subcontractors as part of their standard terms and conditions.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) does not hold any information on payments made within 30 days by its suppliers to sub-contractors as it has no direct relationship with its suppliers’ contractors.

The proportion of suppliers as signatories to the Prompt Payment Code are shown below:

The Department’s terms and conditions are published in the “DECC Standard Terms & Conditions for Supplies”:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/65524/6467-decc-standard-terms-and-conditions-for-supliers-p.pdf.

Section 4 stipulates that “if the Contractor uses a sub-contractor for the purpose of performing the Services or any part of it, the Contractor shall include in the relevant contract a provision which requires the Contractor to pay for those goods or services within 30 days of the Contractor receiving a correct invoice from the sub-contractor”.

For the core Department, the average proportion of undisputed invoices paid within five days is 99.2%. Figures are published each month on the government website at Gov.UK here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-of-energy-climate-change/about/procurement#prompt-payments.

For the Department’s NDPBs and from available information, the average figure is 97%.