§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Solicitor General if she will list the occasions on which her Department, agencies and non-departmental public bodies failed to pay valid invoices within 30 days or after the agreed credit period within financial year 2001–02. [104314]
The Solicitor-General[holding answer 14 May 2003]Crown Prosecution Service
During financial year 2001–02 the Crown Prosecution Service failed to pay 13,490 out of a total of 233,126 valid invoices within 30 days or after the agreed credit period, which represents 5.8 per cent. of the invoices processed.
Serious Fraud Office
The information and detail is not available in the format requested without disproportionate cost.
However, the Serious Fraud Office paid 93.4 per cent. of all invoices within terms or 30 clays, if no terms were specified, for the financial year 2001–02.
Treasury Solicitor's Department
The prompt payment performance of the Treasury Solicitor's Department, Legal Secretariat to the Law Officers and HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate is published each year in line with other Government Departments. For the 2001–02 financial year 97 per cent. of invoices received were paid within the 30 day period.
The total number of invoices received was 10,518 of which 10,150 were paid within 30 days. The remaining 368 (3 per cent.) were paid outside of the 30 day period. Listing each invoice individually would require 522W extraction of details at disproportionate cost but the breakdown of these invoices by calendar month is as follows:
Date Number of invoices April 2001 74 May 2001 18 June 2001 26 July 2001 67 August 2001 27 September 2001 24 October 2001 22 November 2001 16 December 2001 18 January 2002 39 February 2002 29 March 2002 8 Total 368