Name And Shame Big Firms Who Pay Late - Cotter

3.15.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 13th Apr 2004

Large companies who persistently make late payments to suppliers should be named and shamed on a register, according to Liberal Democrats. A new study published today by the Federation of Small Businesses shows that UK PLC's are still too slow at paying their suppliers and are failing to disclose payment times, as required by company law.

Responding to the research, Liberal Democrat Small Business Spokesman, Brian Cotter MP said: "Most owner-managers view levying a late payment charge, on a client, as commercial suicide which leaves small businesses with no choice but to sit and wait until bigger businesses decide to pay up. With larger companies owing small businesses a net debt of around £20bn, this is forcing around 10,000 firms out of business every year."

"With a 66% drop in the number of companies meeting the legal requirement to disclose payment times in annual accounts, it is time the Government clamped down on those that are continuing to throw their commercial weight around."

"Those that fail to pay on time should be named and shamed in an annual list and there must be tougher penalties on companies that refuse to comply with reporting requirements."

ENDS

Notes

• The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) today published the payment performance of over 2,700 PLC's for the fifth year running. The research shows that the average length of time it takes a PLC to pay its suppliers remains at 46 days, the same figure as 4 years ago. In addition, only 2,706 companies disclosed their payment records in 2003, representing a 66% drop since 2001, when 4,100 PLC's published the information.

• The Private Sector Payment Performance League Tables 2003/4 are available online at www.cmrc.co.uk/leaguetables and www.payontime.co.uk