HC Deb 19 December 1995 vol 268 c1063W
Mrs. Roche

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many(a) orders and (b) firms are represented by the percentage of invoices not paid by his Department within 30 days in 1994–95. [6494]

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton

Based on a sample but extrapolating to a full year, we estimate that some 2,500 invoices were not paid in accordance with the appropriate contract. The statistical process we used does not provide a basis for allowing us to estimate the number of firms these represent.