The Forum of Private Business has found that some police forces in the UK are not paying suppliers and contractors on time.
According to the The Forums’ website, they used the Freedom of Information Act to ask every civilian police force in the UK how quickly they processed payments to businesses during the 09/10 financial year. Some forces managed to pay more than three quarters of invoices within 10 days and almost 100% of invoices within 30 days.
In a request under the Freedom of Information Act, the Forum asked police forces four questions:
– Under its standard payment terms, how quickly, in days, does your force aim to pay invoices from suppliers and contractors?
– During 2009/10, what percentage of invoices did your force settled in 10 days or less, from the invoice date?
– During 2009/10, what percentage of invoices did your force settled in 30 days or less, from the invoice date?
– If possible, please also supply the mean average of the amount of time, in days, your force took to settle bills in 2009/10.
Suppliers and contracors include software, IT, drug testing, driver training, psychiatric treatment, waste disposal, livery fitment, building maintenance, vehicle recovery, veterinary care and dog food.
Forum spokesman Chris Gorman said: “We found that some police forces appear to be excellent at paying businesses promptly. This is to be welcomed and I’m sure their efforts are appreciated by the smaller firms which work for them.
“However, many others appear to be making little or no effort to pay their suppliers and contractors quickly. This means that the companies they deal with may well find their finances under serious pressure while they are waiting to be paid.
“It also means the poorly-paying forces may be limiting the range of companies willing to work for them to only larger businesses with substantial cash reserves. This is bad both for small businesses and for the public purse, as it means there will be less competition in the tendering process.
“We would urge the forces which don’t seem to see prompt payment as a priority to follow the example set by their counterparts elsewhere in the UK, both for their own good and to help ensure the survival of small firms in their areas.”