Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what proportion of his Department's payments to (a) businesses and (b) SMEs were made within his Department's prompt payment target in each of the last five years.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) complies with the Prompt Payment Code which the Chartered Institute of Credit Management administers on our behalf.

BEIS was formed on 14 July 2016 so we are unable to provide data prior to that date. The data we hold applies to payments of valid invoices for goods and services and cannot be sub-divided into those made to general business and those made to SMEs. The data in the table below applies to all businesses:

Links: BIES Annual Report & Accounts 2016-17 (page 77)

BEIS Annual Report & Accounts 2017-18 (page 37)