Caroline Flint – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Flint on 2016-03-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what proportion of his Department’s invoices for goods and services supplied by (a) private companies and (b) small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are completed on time; and what proportion of the (i) number and (ii) value of contracts between his Department and private companies are held by SMEs.

Brandon Lewis

The proportion of the Department’s invoices for goods and services supplied by private companies and small and medium-sized enterprises cannot be reliably extrapolated from our current payment system as it doesn’t link or split payment performance in this way.

As of the last quarter, the Department paid 89% of invoices within 5 days. The Department’s prompt payment data can be accessed via this link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dclg-and-pins-prompt-payment-data-2015

Of the Department’s current contracts, 33% are held by small and medium-sized enterprises. The Department’s annual spend on these as a proportion of our overall spend with suppliers is 25.4%.