Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, following the recent appointment of a Small Business Commissioner, what further steps he is taking to help ensure SMEs can access support.

Late payments are one of the biggest problems facing small businesses in the UK.

Government has already taken steps to tackle the issue through the launch of a new Fair Payment Code which will encourage and highlight businesses with the best payment practices.

We will soon be laying secondary legislation which will make it a requirement for large companies to include payment performance data in their annual reports.

Finally, we will be launching a public consultation in the coming weeks which sets out measures that will go even further to tackle late payments, including additional powers for the Small Business Commissioner.