Nine out of 10 central government invoices are paid within the Government's new, 10-day target designed to inject liquidity into the economy, business secretary Peter Mandelson has claimed. His comment follows a recent report by a European credit management firm, published in The MJ last week, which reported UK public bodies were among the worst in the continent for paying their invoices promptly. The study, by Intrum Justitia, claimed UK public bodies owed around £6bn in unpaid invoices in the first quarter of 2009, and took an average of 29 days to pay their bills. Lord Mandelson, who this week acknowledged that late invoice payments had a ‘devastating impact' on small businesses, recently introduced a target for central government bodies to pay their invoices within 10 days. ‘The Government has taken the lead, with nine out of 10 central government invoices now being paid within 10 days. The challenge now is for business to step up and play fair,' he said. Business minister, Shriti Vadera, this week met several leaders of FTSE-listed companies – including Barclays, British Airways and B&Q – urging them to sign up to the Government's ‘prompt payment code'.
