In a conference last week, Government representatives and The Institute of Credit Management (ICM) urged business leaders to sign-up to a ‘Prompt Payment Code’. The initiative is designed to tackle the late payment culture that, especially in the current economic climate, is having such damaging effects on small businesses.

At the summit, small businesses minister, Shriti Vadera, met with business leaders urging them to ‘play fair’ and commit to signing-up to the code, and to pay their suppliers promptly in accordance with their contracts.

The code is just one of the measures initiated by the Government and the ICM promoting ethical payment practices. Along with the distribution of their new pamphlet, ‘Paying on time is good for businesses’, they will continue to press the remaining FTSE companies to sign-up.

As a result of the conference, eleven new high profile companies have signed-up to the code, including:
Barclays plc
Motorola UK Ltd
Standard Chartered
Sony UK
Sky
Centrica plc
British Airways plc
Imperial Tobacco
B&Q
AMEC
Research in Motion (BlackBerry)

At the summit, Shriti Vadera said:

“Late payment can be the final straw for small business in the current climate. So the commitment here today by major companies heading up supply chains to pay on time is a win for all businesses”.

For a more comprehensive list of signatories visit: http://212.36.97.5/ppc/signatory.a4d
For more information about the code, what it entails and how to sign-up visit: http://www.promptpaymentcode.org.uk/