Response: Late payment of invoices
Published 29 August 2024
© Crown copyright 2024
This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gov.uk.
Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.
This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/foi2024-00241-late-payment-of-invoices/response-late-payment-of-invoices
| Reference number | FOI2024-00241 |
|---|---|
| Date of request | 22 July 2024 |
| Date of response | 29 August 2024 |
| Outcome | Information withheld |
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (the department) received the following request for information which we responded to under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA):
Please share the number of invoices from suppliers and partners that have been paid late over the past three years, including the total value of these invoices, each of the past three years from August to July. For example for August 2023 to July 2024:
250 invoices paid late
Late invoices totalled £250,000
Our response
Section 21: This information is accessible to you by other means
You can access all the information you have requested here: Prompt payment data for DSIT.
Because the information is already reasonably accessible to you, technically it is withheld under section 21 of the FOIA.
Section 21 states:
(1) Information which is reasonably accessible to the applicant otherwise than under section 1 is exempt information.
Section 21(1) is an absolute exemption under the FOIA therefore we are not required to conduct a public interest test when withholding this information.