Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what proportion of suppliers to his Department and its agencies and non-departmental public bodies paid subcontractors within 30 days in the last period for which figures are available.

Contracts awarded under Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) standard terms and conditions mandate that suppliers should pay their subcontractors within 30 days. However the data required to answer this question is not held centrally by the FCO and cannot be provided without disproportionate cost.