Set amongst Government’s plans to tackle payment laws, the Prime Minister today extending the role of the Small Business Commissioner (SBC). The new SBC (Emma Jones) will be empowered to wield fines, worth potentially millions of pounds, against the biggest firms who persistently choose to pay their suppliers late. New powers will also allow the authority to carry out spot checks and enforce a 30-day invoice verification period to speed up resolutions to disputes. The upcoming legislation will also introduce maximum payment terms of 60 days, reducing to 45 days, giving firms certainty they’ll be paid on time.
The outgoing Small Business Commissioner, Liz Barclay, spoke at the FIS Contractors Awards in June as one of her last official engagements with a plea to continue supporting the Office of the Small Business Commissioner and encouraging FIS members to sign the Fair Payment Code. Responding to these new powers FIS CEO Iain McIlwee said:
“In our FIS Manifesto: Blueprint for Better Construction (published last year) we highlighted concerns that to-date much of Government’s effort on payment practices has been rhetoric over real reform. Exhibit A was that there has, to date, been no enforcement of Duty to Report requirements. Payment interventions have simply not been backed with sufficient resources to deliver the intended changes. In our recommendations we highlighted that the Small Business Commissioner should be given more authority and resource to support change. These are points that we have reinforced in all of our dealings with Government, most recently in July in our response to the Consultation on Small Business Support. It is great to see this change finally being made and we look forward to working with the new Small Business Commissioner, Emma Jones, to support this vital work. Poor payment practices are a cancer at the core of construction and profoundly undermine attempts to improve culture, investment and positive change”.
