Consultation outcome

Business payment practices and policies: duty to report

From:
Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy
Published
27 November 2014
Last updated
31 January 2017 — See all updates
This consultation has concluded

Read the full outcome

Duty to report on payment practices and performance: government response

PDF, 729 KB, 29 pages

Duty to report on payment practices and performance: final impact assessment

PDF, 231 KB, 30 pages

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Duty to report on payment practices and performance: final impact assessment - RPC opinion

PDF, 250 KB, 4 pages

Detail of outcome

These documents set out the government response to the consultation responses received. They explain:

  • which businesses will be in scope of the duty
  • the ‘metrics’ against which businesses will need to report
  • how and when businesses will need to report
  • the sanctions for not reporting

The government response also includes revised draft regulations.

See the final guidance and the related research.

Feedback received

Duty to report on payment practices and performance: summary of responses

PDF, 200 KB, 14 pages

Detail of feedback received

We received 59 responses to the consultation. These mainly came from:

  • business representative bodies
  • trade organisations
  • professional bodies

We also had responses from large businesses in the retail and construction industries. A full list of respondents is available in Annex 1 of the summary of responses.

Next steps

On 20 March 2015 we published plans for implementing the new report requirement.

Original consultation

Summary

We’re asking for views on our proposals to make companies report on their payment performance to help create responsible payment practices.

This consultation ran from
to

Consultation description

We want to know if we should ask companies to report on a series of measurements that will tell us about their payment performance. We propose to include the:

  • proportion of invoices that are paid beyond the payment terms
  • proportion of invoices paid within 30 days
  • proportion of invoices paid over 30, 60 and 120 days
  • the average time taken to pay invoices

We also want your views on whether companies should also provide a statement that would help the supplier understand the company’s payment practices and performance.

These proposals would allow suppliers to compare different customers against a standardised time frame of payment. The reporting procedure would be easy for companies to understand and straightforward to complete. It would also provide useful data for suppliers to use.

Documents

Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill: duty to report on payment practices and policies

Ref: BIS/14/1203

PDF, 299 KB, 30 pages

Annex E: duty to report on payment practices and policies - impact assessment

Ref: BIS/14/1203/An2

PDF, 689 KB, 64 pages

This file may not be suitable for users of assistive technology.

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Annex F: duty to report on payment practices and policies - draft secondary regulations

Ref: BIS/14/1203/An3

PDF, 31 KB, 4 pages

Updates to this page

Published 27 November 2014
Last updated 31 January 2017 + show all updates

  1. Added final impact assessments.

  2. Added governmnt response.

  3. Details of new prompt payment duty to report added.

  4. A summary of public responses has been added.

  5. First published.

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