Late Payments to Suppliers
Case reference FOI2025/00626
Received 27 March 2025
Published 24 April 2025
Request
1. A complete list of all suppliers, contractors, and sub-contractors who have received late payments beyond agreed terms. For each entry, where available, please include:
• Business name
• Business address
• Contact email (where non-personal and appropriate)
• Invoice number(s)
• Invoice issue date(s)
• Payment due date(s)
• Actual payment date(s)
• Invoice amount
• Number of days late (if applicable)
• Whether statutory late payment interest and/or fixed compensation was applied
2. The total amount of late payment interest and/or compensation paid under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 for each year within this 6-year period.
3. Copies of any current council policies or internal procedures regarding payment terms and practices related to suppliers, contractors, and sub-contractors
Response
1. A complete list of all suppliers, contractors, and sub-contractors who have received late payments beyond agreed terms. For each entry, where available, please include:
• Business name
• Business address
• Contact email (where non-personal and appropriate)
• Invoice number(s)
• Invoice issue date(s)
• Payment due date(s)
• Actual payment date(s)
• Invoice amount
• Number of days late (if applicable)
• Whether statutory late payment interest and/or fixed compensation was applied
A: The response to Q1 is not held in a form that would enable it to be located, retrieved and extracted within the Appropriate Time Limit which equates to 18 hours as defined by the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limits and Fees) Regulations 2004.
We can provide this information for all but one supplier. There is 1 regular supplier for which there were multiple late payments, however there is no way of run a report on which of there invoices these relate to – and therefore we cannot advise payment details. There were 978 invoices paid in the timeframe requested, and it would take 3 minutes to check whether each invoice was paid on time.
This would at a conservative estimate take at least 48 hours to complete. Where the Limit is exceeded Public Authorities are not obliged to supply the information requested by virtue of S12 of the Act. Please take this letter as a refusal notice under S17 of the Act.
I have provded the answer to Q2 and Q3 below.
2. The total amount of late payment interest and/or compensation paid under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 for each year within this 6-year period.
A: 2019 – £45.00
2020 – 0
2021 – £611.07
2022 – £1970.67
2023 – £845.57
2024 – £993.79
3. Copies of any current council policies or internal procedures regarding payment terms and practices related to suppliers, contractors, and sub-contractors
A: Herefordshire Council follow the Government Late Payment Policy, which is available on the Government website via the following link:
Late commercial payments: charging interest and debt recovery: When a payment becomes late - GOV.UK
As such we consider this information to be exempt under Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 because it is reasonably accessible to you via other means. Please take this letter as a refusal notice under S17 of the Act.
Documents
This is Herefordshire Council's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.
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