Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if he will take steps to ensure that businesses pay for goods and services, including those from freelancers, on time.

This Government will legislate to end the scourge of late payments, which costs the UK economy £11bn per year and closes down 38 UK businesses every day. On 23 October we concluded a 12-week public consultation on our legislative proposals.

We are now analysing and carefully considering the responses to our consultation. These responses are representative of a range of business sizes, including freelancers, and we are grateful for their contributions. We will publish a Government response to the consultation in the new year and intend to take forward legislation as soon as Parliamentary time allows.