Departmental Billing

To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many and what proportion of invoices submitted to his Department have been paid within 10 days in each month since October 2008; and if he will make a statement. (307957)

The Department’s payment performance in relation to the 10-day target is reported to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) on a monthly basis. The Department’s performance from 1 November 2008 to 28 October 2009 is as follows:

	Number of invoices paid	Percentage paid within 10 days
November 2008	6,247	91.6
December	6,618	90.1

January 2009	6,753	91.8
February	7,166	92.5
March	10,531	93.2
April	5,682	84.1
May	6,258	92.0
June	4,564	89.1
July	6,928	94.5
August	4,142	91.2
September	5,009	91.8
October	4,264	94,3

Volume 503: debated on Wednesday 6 January 2010