15 Jan
Committee
Draft Reporting on Payment Practices and Performance (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2024

The committee session focused on deliberating the changes proposed by the draft Reporting on Payment Practices and Performance (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2024. Its primary intent is to enhance transparency regarding payment practices, particularly concerning retention payments in construction contracts. Proposed amendments aim to provide smaller businesses with better insight, therefore encouraging fairer treatment within the supply chain. Key components include compulsory reporting by larger firms on their use of retention clauses and the details surrounding these contracts.

Over 500

Firms contacted for non-compliance with prior reporting regulations.

2,800

Voluntary signatories to the prompt payment code, as of the last update.

Outcome

The draft regulations were supported without objection but prompted several questions seeking clarifications and additional insights from the Minister regarding future enforcement and the efficacy of the proposed changes. Nevertheless, the motion to adopt the draft regulations was agreed to.

Key Contributions

Esther McVeyChair
Conservative
Gareth ThomasParliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business and Trade
Labour (Co-op)
Dame Harriett BaldwinMember of Parliament
Conservative
Daisy CooperMember of Parliament
Liberal Democrats
Original Transcript
Daisy Cooper
St Albans
LD
09:34

In so many sectors, we have this enormous power imbalance between large companies and the smaller companies that they often contract through their supply chains, and construction is no exception. The Liberal Democrats have no objection to this and broadly welcome it.

Anything that increases transparency is a good thing. Anything that tries to redress the power imbalance in those supply chains is also incredibly welcome. I have just two questions for the Minister.

As a liberal, I strongly believe in the power of incentives, and we always hope that incentives work. In many cases they do. My first question to the Minister is that if these incentives show that they do not work, will the Government have some system for monitoring that process?

Is there some point at which, in the future, the Government intend to review the effectiveness of this legislation?

Secondly, the Minister mentioned that more broadly the Government are looking at the issue of late payments: is he at liberty to mention, either now or at a later stage, the scope of that particular review and which sectors that might apply to?

All content derived from official parliamentary records