Departmental Billing

Mr. Oaten
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural 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.

Dan Norris
[holding answer 12 June 2009]: Following the statement by the Prime Minister at PMQs on 8 October 2008, central Government Departments were asked to make payment of SME supplier invoices within 10 days. From information held centrally the 10 day payment performance for all supplier invoices from November 2008 for the core-Department and Executive agencies and NDPBs that utilise core-DEFRA’s financial system is as follows:

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|                                            |10 day performance|
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|                                            |2008              |2009|
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|Organisation                                |November          |December|January|February|March|April|May|
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|Core DEFRA                                  |33.5              |77.1|99.8|99.8|99.4|99.7|99.9|
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|Animal Health Agency                        |25.5              |74.6|99.9|100.0|99.9|99.9|100.0|
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|Natural England                             |99.5              |99.4|99.5|99.6|99.9|99.8|99.7|
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|Marine and Fisheries Agency                 |41.6              |84.6|100.0|96.3|100.0|100.0|99.5|
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|Gov. Decon. Service                         |35.7              |67.3|100.0|99.5|100.0|—|—|
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|DECC cost centres                           |28.1              |81.0|100.0|100.0|100.0|99.5|100.0|
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|Note:GDS merged into FERA from 1 April 2009.|                  |
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