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Departmental Billing

Volume 494: debated on Monday 15 June 2009

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence 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. (279523)

[holding answer 12 June 2009]: The Department does not keep statistics on the average number of days taken to pay suppliers' invoices. This information could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

The Department is working towards payment performance within a target date of 10 working days in accordance with the Government's Prompt Payment Initiative. Information currently available for the Department, its agencies and trading funds since November 2008 is as follows:

Percentage paid within 10 days

MOD and agencies

UKHO

Met Office

DSTL

November 2008

72.3

19.7

December 2008

85.0

26.0

January 2009

80.0

55.5

46.0

February 2009

85.0

82.5

19.9

March 2009

90.7

94.7

86.2

38.3

April 2009

92.8

97.6

81.3

May 2009

98.4

98.1

77.5

We are working with the Defence Support Group towards a target to pay trade creditors' invoices within 10 days of receipt.