Details of payments to suppliers more than 30 days late: FOI release

Information requested

We request under FOISA that you provide, (in a machine readable format, preferably Microsoft Excel or CSV) the following information in respect of suppliers which were not paid in within 30 days for the period starting 1 April 2019 to the date of this request:

1. Supplier Name
2. Invoice Date
3. Invoice Received Date
4. Invoice Due Date
5. Gross Invoice Value
6. Payment Date
7. Payment Terms
8. Late Payment Compensation or Interest Paid (if any)

Response

I enclose a copy of most of the information you requested. The Scottish Government does not hold centrally if any interest/compensation has been paid. It is the responsibility of the supplier to request interest or compensation by means of an invoice and that these would be dealt with individually. We are therefore unable to identify all such invoices received.

To comply with data protection regulations, we have withheld the names of individual suppliers from the information provided as they constitute personal data. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide all the information you have requested because exemptions under section 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA apply. An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested because it is personal data of a third party, i.e. to protect the anonymity of individuals, and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exemption is not subject to the ‘public interest test’, so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.

The Core Scottish Government works within 30 day payment terms of the received date of the invoice within Accounts Payable (AP). Suppliers are advised on where to submit invoices when a purchase order is raised. Should the invoice not be submitted directly to Accounts Payable, the payment terms start from the date received in AP. Our aim is to pay all invoices within 10 working days, as per our 2008 Ministerial Commitment. Some transactions to other Government departments have been excluded prior to October 2024 as they are internal transfers, rather than standard payments.

Please note that the Scottish Government moved to a new finance system in October 2024. There may be some changes to supplier names in order to facilitate new technology within our new system. For example, Venesky-Brown Recruitment Limited is now known as VeneskyBrown. This is required for electronic invoicing.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI 202500495045 - Information Released - Annex

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