Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of payments by his Department to small businesses are made on time and in accordance with the prompt payment code.

Central government policy on prompt payments requires the Department pay at least 80% of all undisputed commercial invoices within five days, with the remaining undisputed invoices being paid within 30 days.

The Department publishes quarterly information on prompt payments to our suppliers within five, 10 and 30 days on GOV.UK at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/department-of-health-prompt-payment-of-suppliers-data/department-of-health-prompt-payment-of-suppliers-data-2015

Payments data captured by the Department does not separate the commercial payments into private companies and small/medium enterprises (SMEs) and to satisfy SME suppliers alone would incur disproportionate cost.