Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure that NHS bodies make timely payments to small business providers.

Central Government policy is to pay 80% of undisputed invoices within five days, and the rest within 30 days. The Department of Health publishes quarterly data showing its own performance against this target. For the last quarter available, the Department paid 98.4% within five days and 99.9% within 30 days. National Health Service bodies are required to disclose performance against the 30 day Better Payment Practice Code in their accounts.