With this it will be convenient to discuss the following:
New clause 3—Prompt Payment Code, duties of the Secretary of State—
‘(1) The Secretary of State shall—
(a) ensure that any business with payment terms of more than 60 days cannot sign up to the Prompt Payment Code, and that any existing signatory with payment terms of more than 60 days is removed from the list;
(b) at the end of each financial year, the Secretary of State shall write to all businesses in the FTSE 350 who are not signatories of the Prompt Payment Code asking them to become so;
(c) the Secretary of State shall publish a list of those businesses written to prominently on the Government’s website.”
New clause 4—Late payment review—
‘(1) The Secretary of State shall—
(a) conduct a review into how the Government can use the payment publishing regime to ensure that small businesses who are paid late by a larger supplier are automatically paid compensation, and into how the onus of reporting late payment can be shifted away from the smallest businesses who cannot afford to lose significant customers; and
(b) report back to both Houses of Parliament on the conclusions of the review.”
Amendment 6, in clause 3, page 4, line 33, at end insert—
“(g) about the circumstances and process for amending payment terms of the company.”
This is for companies to include details of the circumstances and processes (including who will be involved) by which payment terms would be amended, preventing unilateral and ad hoc changes.
Amendment 91, in clause 11, page 12, line 19, at end insert—
“(5) The Secretary of State may by order establish a Prohibited List of certain classes of exports that cannot receive UKEF/ECGD support.
(6) An order establishing , or thereafter amending a list for the purposes mentioned in subsection (5) shall be subject to the affirmative resolution procedure.”
This amendment would grant the Secretary of State the power to prohibit specified types of exports from receiving government support, thereby enabling UK export finance provision to reflect government policies and priorities, such as preventing arms sales to certain regimes. The content of, or changes to, any such list would need to be approved by Parliament.
Government new clause 5—Independent Complaints Commissioner: reporting duty.
Amendment 92, page 20, line 5, leave out clauses 20 to 26.
This amendment removes the obligation on future governments to set a deregulation “business impact” target for each Parliament.
Government amendments 27 and 28.
Amendment 7, in clause 37, page 35, line 9, at end insert—
“() duties to establish the past payment performance of potential parties to a contract, before contracts are entered into;
() duties to ensure contracts entered into include the contractor’s requirements for prompt payment of their suppliers.”
These are to ensure that the payment performance of potential contractors are known before contracts are entered into and that contracts entered into require contractors to pay their suppliers promptly.
Amendment 1, page 35, line 16 , at end insert—
“() duties relating to the provision of apprenticeships and training opportunities as a result of procurement;
() duties to publish reports about the amount of expenditure undertaken by the relevant procurement function in relation to—
(i) amount and proportion of expenditure undertaken by small and medium-sized enterprises,
(ii) amount and proportion of expenditure undertaken in the local area.”
Amendment 2, page 35, line 22, at end add—
‘(5A) A person making regulations under this section may also specify the reasons why firms may be excluded from entering into contracts.”
Amendment 3, page 35, line 28, at end add—
‘(8A) Regulations under this section are subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000”
Amendment 4, page 35, line 30, leave out subsection (10).