{"id":846438,"date":"2026-03-24T05:18:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T05:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/846438\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T05:18:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T05:18:16","slug":"government-crackdown-on-late-payments-aimed-at-saving-hundreds-of-small-businesses-in-northern-ireland-from-closure-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/846438\/","title":{"rendered":"Government crackdown on late payments aimed at saving hundreds of small businesses in Northern Ireland from closure \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The UK Government has announced what is claims will be the toughest crackdown on late payments in over 25 years.<\/p>\n

Sweeping new powers are to be given to the UK\u2019s Small Business Commissioner to investigate poor payment practices, adjudicate payment disputes, and fine the worst offenders.<\/p>\n

It could result fines worth tens of millions for firms that persistently pay late or fail to comply with the new laws.<\/p>\n

Research published by the Department of Business and Trade (DBT) in London linked late payments to the closure of around 319 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) every year in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n

\"Live:<\/a>\"Belfast<\/a><\/p>\n

The government said the changes will include a new 60-day cap on payment terms on all large firms when paying smaller suppliers.<\/p>\n

New mandatory interest on late payments will also be introduced, with a requirement for all commercial contracts to include statutory interest set at 8% above the Bank of England base rate. <\/p>\n

A compensation fee of \u00a3100 will also be applied to every overdue payment.<\/p>\n

The issue of late payment has been consistently highlighted by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) in Northern Ireland, where there is a high proportion of micro-businesses particularly vulnerable to the impact of unpaid invoices.<\/p>\n

The construction sector, a major employer in Northern Ireland, could also see specific changes. <\/p>\n

The government is proposing a ban on the withholding of retention payments in construction contracts, with the aim of to preventing small firms from losing money due to insolvencies further up the supply chain.<\/p>\n

FSB policy chair Tina McKenzie said: \u201cLate payments are a blight on our economy, so FSB is pleased to have worked in partnership with the Government to deliver the toughest legislation in the G7.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe new laws will finally bring a stop to big businesses using their small suppliers as sources of free credit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is real progress, and we\u2019ll keep working with the government to make sure new laws are brought in as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The UK Government has announced what is claims will be the toughest crackdown on late payments in over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":846439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5011],"tags":[51,26932,1144,16,15],"class_list":["post-846438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-northern-ireland","tag-business","tag-fsb","tag-northern-ireland","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116282465477402653","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=846438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/846439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=846438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=846438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=846438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}