Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
The Small Business Commissioner may be able to issue fines to companies who pay their suppliers late.
This proposal is part of a new consultation looking to extend the Small Business Commissioner’s powers, which in the past have been criticised for falling short.
If granted, businesses will be made to be pay suppliers as a lump sum or as part of a payment plan, or the Small Business Commissioner could impose further penalties.
The government may also allow the Commissioner to force firms to share information during an investigation and launch probes into suspected bad payment practices, even if no one has reported them.
Payment problems have worsened since COVID-19 surged in the UK as businesses are desperate to hold on to cash.
Larger companies have been made to publish their data in the past but critics have slated it, saying that the figures are very difficult to understand.
The current Small Business Commissioner, Paul Scully, says that £23.4bn is owed to small and medium-sized businesses, with a cost of £4.4bn a year just to collect the money owed.
Click here to take part in the consultation. It’s open until December 24th 2020.
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