Departmental Invoices

HC Deb 31 March 2003 vol 402 cc569-70W

Mr. Bercow

To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if she will list the occasions on which her departmental agencies and non-departmental public bodies failed to pay valid invoices within 30 days, or after the agreed credit period in the financial year 2001–02. [104310]

Ms Rosie Winterton

No central record is kept of late payment of individual invoices. However, overall, during the financial year 2001–02, my Department, (excluding the Legal Services Commission (LSC)) paid 94.4 per cent. of valid invoices received within 30 days. The breakdown is as follows.

LCD—96.2 per cent.

Court Service—95 per cent.

Northern Ireland Court Service—91.03 per cent.

HM Land Registry—99.1 per cent.

Pubic Guardianship Office—100 per cent.

Public Record Office—99.1 per cent.

CAFCASS—88 per cent.

Payment performance in respect of commercial invoices by the LSC is not recorded separately by them from other kinds of payment and is therefore not available without disproportionate cost.