Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, following the announcement in the Spring Statement that listed companies will be required to report on their payment performance in their annual report and accounts in order to tackle the issue of late payment, (1) how they intend to publish this information, and (2) when they will assess whether adequate improvement has been made.

At Spring Statement, my rt. hon Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that Government will require large company’s Audit Committees to review payments practices and report them in their annual accounts. We are in discussion on the best mechanism to implement this and further details will be published in due course as part of the Government Response to the Creating a Responsible Payment Culture Call for Evidence.