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<p>Central Government policy is to pay undisputed invoices within five days and to pass 30 day payment terms down the supply chain as a condition of contract. We have tasked Departments to manage their contracts to ensure prime contractors pay sub-contractors within 30 days.</p><p>In construction, central Government has led the way in the use of Project Bank Accounts, and these are now becoming the norm. Using Project Bank Accounts, due payments tend to get from the Government client to Tier 3 of the supply chain within three or four days.</p><p>We are encouraging SMEs to use the ‘Mystery Shopper’ service to report instances of late payment so we can investigate. To date we have had four such complaints, of which two resulted in payment being made and two related to payments that were disputed rather than late.</p> |