Large businesses should report their payment times

Research conducted by the Better Payment Practice Group (BPPG) shows that nine in ten British businesses think large companies should be made to report their payment times.* Few do this at present, in breach of the law, causing significant problems for smaller businesses.

All UK PLCs, together with their large subsidiaries, are required by the Companies Act (1985) to disclose the time it takes to pay their commercial bills but last year only 3,243 actually did so. This represents a 21% fall in payment reporting in 2001.** There are around 7,000 businesses with at least 250 employees in the UK.

The survey, conducted on this web site, asked businesses whether they thought large companies should report their payment times: 91% responded yes and just 9% said no.

Clive Lewis, BPPG Chairman, said: “To have just a small proportion of PLCs comply with the law is a sorry state of affairs, especially considering the detrimental effect late payment can have on smaller businesses down the supply chain. It’s no wonder over ninety percent of companies completing our survey took a dim view of this.

“ We work hard to encourage better disclosure by writing to the companies concerned, speaking to their advisers and highlighting the fact that late payment causes 10,000 small business failures each year.”

The BPPG also promotes a better commercial payment culture with a Better Payment Practice Code, education campaigns, free literature and a website with credit management and debt recovery information. It also supports the publication of the private sector payment performance tables.

* The research was conducted throughout June on www.payontime.co.uk and resulted in 1,117 responses.
** Federation of Small Businesses’ Private Sector Payment Performance League Tables 2002

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