Caroline Flint – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Flint on 2016-02-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, 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.
Justin Tomlinson
DWP does not hold the information to answer ‘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.’
However, the figures below are published monthly and quarterly on Gov.UK and confirm DWP’s commitment to paying invoices within 30 days (contractual) and 5 days. We cannot disaggregate the invoices into SMEs and other private companies.
|
2015-16 (Financial Year) |
Percentage of invoices paid within 5 days |
Percentage of invoices paid within 30 days |
|
Quarter 1 |
97.3% |
99.8% |
|
Quarter 2 |
95.5% |
99.7% |
|
Quarter 3 |
97.5% |
99.8% |
At December 2015, 2534 (9.3%) of the Department’s suppliers were SMEs.
At December 2015, SMEs accounted for 2.5% of the Department’s direct commercial spend. However, there is a substantially greater proportion of commercial spend with SMEs via prime contractors. The Department relies upon Cabinet Office survey information in order to estimate the combined total spend with SMEs. The most recent combined total estimate we have (2014/15), is 16.2% of the total or some £483 million.
