UK Government urged to take stronger action on late payment

The Federation of Small Businesses has launched its “Fair Pay, Fair Play” campaign calling on the government to use the opportunity to ensure small businesses are being paid fairly and promptly and setting out recommendations to achieve this.

The Federation of Small Businesses has warned that poor payment practices extend throughout the UK, with four out of five (84%) small businesses within supply chains claiming to have been paid late, while 60% of the late-paid invoices are for amounts greater than GBP 1,000.

In order to ensure small businesses are treated fairly, the Federation of Small Businesses has called on the government to force the UK’s biggest companies to appoint non-executive directors for payment practice and supplier relationships who can provide a summary of activity for the company’s annual report. Ministers have been urged to introduce stronger enforcement for businesses with poor payment practices including a mandatory adoption of the Prompt Payment Code for large businesses and fines for failure to publish legally required payment data.

The call comes as an FSB survey found that one in three (36%) Scottish businesses have run into cash flow difficulties as a result of late payments, while the average value of each late payment owed to a Scottish firm is GBP 5,718.