The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) has published the Prompt Payment and Cash Flow Review. This review considers existing prompt payment policy and sets out actions that government will take forward to improve payment times across the UK.
Key measures in the Review report include:
- Extending and amending the Payment Practice Reporting Regulations 2017;
- Broadening the responsibilities of the Small Business Commissioner;
- More active enforcement of the Payment Practice Reporting Regulations; and
- Increasing public awareness and transparency by supporting publication of payment performance league tables;
The review report can be found here.
The Government response to the Amendments to the Payment Practices and Performance Regulations 2017 has also been published detailing a summary of the consultation responses received and the next steps.
In response to this consultation government will take forward the following actions, amending the Regulations such that:
- The Regulations will be extended beyond the sunset clause date of the 6th of April 2024 for up to 7 years, with a review to take place after 5;
- Qualifying businesses will be required to report the total value of payments due in the reporting period that have not been paid within agreed terms, alongside existing requirements to report on the total volume of payments due;
- The Regulations will include an effective method of reporting the proportion of disputed invoices whilst still including them as late payments in overall payment time data;
- The payment dates to be reported when supply chain finance is used will be made clearer;
- Where relevant, reporting must include information on standard retention payment terms and retention payment performance statistics for qualifying construction contracts.
