FI16021
Request
This is a request under FOIA for details of instances in which Dover District Council (including, where applicable, any agencies, bodies, or units for which it is ultimately responsible for supplier payments) has failed to pay its suppliers on time, thereby causing liabilities for late payment compensation and/or interest on late payments to be incurred for the public purse.
As the Government has made clear, late payment remains a significant issue for business and a drag on the UK economy as a whole. It is clear that, despite what the law says, many suppliers have not received timely payment or the interest and compensation for late payment to which they are entitled by statute.
Public authorities must keep information on payment in order to comply with their legal obligations, and there is a public interest in ensuring both compliance and that unpaid interest and compensation is recovered from public authorities. If proper records are kept as they ought to be, then information in this respect ought readily to be available.
The information requested below is not confidential, and its disclosure under FOIA is not capable of adversely affecting any party’s commercial interests. This is because this request is aimed at data about late payment liabilities that have in fact arisen: the disclosure of this data cannot cause any additional liability to arise. We therefore do not anticipate any reasonable grounds for refusing this request.
In any event, there is strong public interest in transparency about these matters. Relevant factors in this respect include: enhancing public understanding and scrutiny of issues of significant importance to stewardship of the public purse and to economic growth; facilitating an informed debate about compliance by your authority with its contractual obligations and with Government policy; helping businesses that suffer from late payment (many of which are small and medium-sized enterprises), and encouraging improvements in payment practices by public authorities such as yours.
Request
With the above points in mind, we request under FOIA that you provide, (preferably in Microsoft Excel or an equivalent machine-readable format) the following information in respect of suppliers which were not paid in within 30 days for the period starting 1 April 2023 to the date of this request:
- Supplier Name
- Invoice Date
- Gross Invoice Value
- Payment Date
- Late Payment Compensation or Interest Paid (if any)
In relation to point 5 of our request (late payment interest or compensation paid), I note that your website includes a “Total amount of interest paid” under the Public Contracts Regulations. Would it be possible to provide a simple breakdown of that figure by supplier, invoice date, gross invoice value, and payment date? From the totals, it appears this relates to only a small number of transactions, so I hope this may be possible without exceeding the cost threshold.
Response
The information you have sought is attached for 2023/24 and 2025/26 (to date). The data for 2024/25 is available online at https://www.dover.gov.uk/Corporate-Information/Freedom-of-Information/Freedom-of-information-Disclosure-Log/Responses/Attachments/FI15770-Late-Payment-to-Suppliers-Part-1.pdf.
In respect of point 5 of your request (Late Payment Compensation or Interest Paid), I can confirm that the Council does not keep detailed records of late payments made, and to provide this would take exceed the appropriate limit set out in the Freedom of Information Act. As this information is not readily available and from our preliminary assessment, we have estimated that the cost of complying with this part your request would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’. The appropriate limit has been specified in regulations and for Local Government it is set at £450. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 2½ working days in determining whether the information is held, locating, retrieving and extracting the data. I regret therefore, that on this occasion I must refuse this part of your request in accordance with Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act.
However, we do keep a record of late payments and any liability due should the company charge and this has been provided. This is a detailed breakdown of the data provided on our website at https://www.dover.gov.uk/Corporate-Information/Financial-Information/Public-Contract-Regulation.aspx.
Please note that the late payment fees are often added to a future invoice for past late payments so though we have provided the Gross Invoice amount often this is not relevant. Column D (Late Payment Transaction Amount) is what relates to late payment charges on that particular Invoice and the total sum of that column is what is published on our website.
Attachments
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