FOI request (FOIR-501467948)

Payment of Local Authority Invoices

Requested Mon 27 March 2023
Responded  Tue 16 May 2023

For the period between June 2022 and January 2023, please provide the statistics as follows:

1. The average number of days taken to make payments of invoices, measured from the date of receipt of invoice or other notice to the date the cash is received by the supplier.

2. The percentage of payments made within the reporting period which were paid in 30 days or fewer, between 31 and 60 days, and in 61 days or longer.

3. The percentage of payments due within the reporting period which were not paid within the agreed payment period.

Response

1. 11.9 days

2.

30 days or under: 91.2%

31 to 60 days: 5.8%

Over 61 Days: 3%

3. Hastings Borough Council does not record the agreed payment period however, our policy is to process the payment when due as quickly and efficiently as possible. Please note that the date the invoice is received is not recorded by staff, or reported by the finance system. Staff will enter the date of the invoice, as given by the customer, which is consequently reported by the finance system as both invoice date and due date.

The longest reported period between invoice date (27/6/2022) and date paid (27/4/2023) was 304 days, however investigations revealed that the invoice was actually received, uploaded and paid on the same day.