Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the time taken for his Department to process invoices for contracted work by SMEs in the defence sector.

The Ministry of Defence is committed to ensuring its suppliers of all sizes are paid what they are owed promptly. The department aims to pay 90% of undisputed and valid invoices from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) within five days. We are exceeding this target, in the last quarter of this financial year, over 95% of invoices have been paid within this timescale. Additionally, 100% of all undisputed and valid invoices should be paid within 30 days.

Information relating to the department's supplier payment performance can be found at the gov.uk website.