Departmental Billing Mr. Oaten 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. Chris Bryant 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.