Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will take steps to ensure that NHS trusts provide prompt and accurate payments to small businesses.

National Health Service trusts and foundation trusts are required to follow the advice within HM Treasury’s ‘Managing Public Money’ which sets out that they should include a clause in their contracts requiring contractors to pay their suppliers within 30 days. The Department has also developed standard ‘NHS Terms and conditions’ for use by NHS trusts and foundation trusts which reiterate these terms when procuring goods and services from suppliers.

The Department of Health Group’s own Manual for Accounts sets out that NHS bodies must disclose their compliance with the Better Practice Payment Code target (to pay at least 95% of invoices, both for NHS and non-NHS suppliers within 30 days of receipt of an invoice) and detail their performance in their annual reports. The NHS Provider Regulators (NHS Improvement) has also raised awareness of compliance with the Code through its official monthly bulletin.