Policy paper

Late payment: common framework

Non-legislative framework to ensure the UK government and devolved governments work together on late payment (commercial transactions) policy.

• From: Department for Business and Trade
• Published: 19 March 2026

Documents

Late payment common framework

HTML

Details

The Late Payment Common Framework covers policy previously covered by EU legislation designed to protect businesses against late payment in commercial transactions.

This framework has been developed collaboratively by the:

• UK government
• Scottish Government
• Welsh Government
• Northern Ireland Executive

This non-legislative agreement formalises ways of working between the 4 governments on late payment (commercial transactions) policy. Its purpose is to facilitate multilateral policy development through establishing governance arrangements and setting out commitments for ways of working.

It supersedes the previous provisional framework document.

Published 19 March 2026