Consultation outcome

Late payment of finance: building a responsible payment culture

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government
This consultation has concluded

Download the full outcome

Building a responsible payment culture: government response

Request an accessible format.
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email enquiries@beis.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

Detail of outcome

The government response summarises the views we received, and sets out the steps we will take in response.

Detail of feedback received

We received over 100 responses from a wide variety of businesses and industry representative bodies. You can view a full list of respondents at Annex A of the government response.


Original consultation

Summary

Seeks views on how to deal with late payment in business transactions.

This consultation ran from
to

Consultation description

Thousands of businesses experience severe administrative and financial burdens every year, simply because they are not paid on time. Late payment stops these businesses, small businesses in particular, from:

  • investing to grow
  • creating new jobs
  • contributing fully to economic prosperity

This consultation asks what government, businesses and other stakeholders can do to build an environment where businesses treat their suppliers fairly, and accept their obligation to pay what they owe, when they owe it, without over-burdensome enforcement.

We seek views on:

  • whether more can be done to change business culture through measures to improve accountability and transparency
  • how to encourage small businesses to make better use of the statutory rights they already have and whether there is a case to improve those rights
  • how we can help small businesses to help themselves to reduce the risk of late payment

Documents

Building a responsible payment culture: a discussion paper

Published 7 December 2013
Last updated 30 May 2014 + show all updates
  1. Adding government response document

  2. First published.