UK Businesses to Publish Payment Practices?

The UK Government has unveiled new measures, which if approved, would force large companies across the country to disclose their payment practices twice every year.

Unfair payment practices, can cause creditors financial problems - which may lead to insolvency events.

Expected to be effective from April 2016, companies of a certain size would need to publish details such as:

• specific payment terms;
• average length of time taken to pay;
• proportion of invoices paid beyond agreed terms;
• proportion of invoices paid in 30 days or less;
• proportion of invoices paid between 31 to 60 days;
• proportion of invoices paid beyond 60 days; and
• any late payment interest owed and paid.

Further, under the new measures, UK-based companies would need to report on their membership of codes of practice (e.g. Prompt Payment Code).

It is believed that the aforementioned payment details would be stored on a specifically designed online portal, and readily accessible to the public.

In turn, this would allow information to be gathered on:

• dispute resolution processes;
• e-invoicing;
• supply chain finance; and
• preferred supplier lists.

Commenting on the new measures, Matthew Hancock, who is the UK's Business Minister, said:

"These new rules will make poor payment performance a boardroom reputational issue for companies and help change the culture once and for all."

He continued:

"These new reporting requirements also mean large companies will have to publicly declare whether financial incentives are required to join or remain on supplier lists."

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