Prompt payment code moves to Small Business Commissioner’s office

The move is in line with the government’s stated ambition to bring all late payment initiatives under a single umbrella.

Launched in 2008, the code’s aim is to promote prompt payment, committing signatories to pay 95 percent of invoices within 60 days and work towards 30 days as normal practice. In the last 12 months, businesses that have failed to honour those commitments have been removed, and only reinstated when a suitable remedial plan has been approved by the prompt payment code’s compliance board.

To date, there are more than 2,500 signatories to the code. In the last 12 months, and a change in policy to allow those who had failed to honour their code commitments to be named publicly, 55 businesses have been suspended and 26 re-instated, the latter having demonstrated a substantial improvement in payment performance that warrants reinstatement.

Plans to transfer oversight of the code were first proposed to transfer the code in a government consultation in 2019.

CICM interim chief executive Sue Chapple backed the transfer of the code to the Small Business Commissioner, particularly given the appointment of the code’s originator, Philip King, to the post of interim Small Business Commissioner.

“Small businesses want a single body to whom they can turn for advice,” Chapple said. “By transferring responsibility for the code to the commissioner’s office, we can ensure the Code receives the investment and resources it needs to continue its success in transforming the payment landscape and promoting best practice.”