Departmental Billing

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what the average number of days taken to pay an invoice by (a) his Department and (b) each of its executive agencies was in each month since November 2008. (279525)

The average number of days taken to pay an invoice in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) are as follows:

	Days
November 2008	11.5
December 2008	11.5
January 2009	13.2
February 2009	9.5
March 2009	8.7
April 2009	14.8
May 2009	10.0

FCO Services is a trading fund that has a separate payments system. FCO Services figures for these months are

	Days
November 2008	20
December 2008	12
January 2009	9
February 2009	8
March 2009	10
April 2009	11
May 2009	13

Both the FCO and FCO Services recognise the importance of paying suppliers promptly, and ensure that valid invoices are paid as soon as possible.

Volume 493: debated on Friday 12 June 2009