FOI Ref: FOI/2022/3479
You asked
Please supply the following information:
- The raw number and percent of late invoices to businesses in different counties per sector across the UK over the last 5 years
- The raw number and percent of late invoices to businesses across different sectors across the UK over the last 5 years
- The raw number and percent of payments made on time to businesses in different counties per sector across the UK over the last 5 years
The raw number and percent of payments made on time to businesses across different sectors across the UK over the last 5 years
- The number of businesses in each county
Sectors required:
- Agriculture, forestry, fishing
- Arts, entertainment, recreation
- Accommodation and food service activities
- Education
- Construction
- Financial and insurance activities
- Information and communication
- Human health and social work activities
- Transportation and storage
- Real estate
- Manufacturing
- Wholesale and retail trade
- Online retail
- Consumer goods and services
- Technology
Counties required
- Bedfordshire
- Berkshire
- Bristol
- Buckinghamshire
- Cambridgeshire
- Cheshire
- City of London
- Cornwall
- Cumbria
- Derbyshire
- Devon
- Dorset
- Durham
- East Rising of Yorkshire
- East Sussex
- Essex
- Gloucestershire
- Greater London
- Greater Manchester
- Hampshire
- Herefordshire
- Hertfordshire
- Isle of Wight
- Kent
- Lancashire
- Leicestershire
- Lincolnshire
- Merseyside
- Norfolk
- North Yorkshire
- Northamptonshire
- Northumberland
- Nottinghamshire
- Oxfordshire
- Ruland
- Shropshire
- Somerset
- South Yorkshire
- Staffordshire
- Suffolk
- Surrey
- Tyne and Wear
- Warwickshire
- West Midlands
- West Sussex
- West Yorkshire
- Wiltshire
- Worcestershire
We said
Thank you for your request.
We do not hold information regarding "late invoices to businesses" or "payments made on time to businesses" and so unfortunately cannot help with your first four points.
We do, however, produce an annual publication on the number of businesses, in the UK, that are registered for VAT and/or PAYE. The latest UK Business; activity, size and location publication was released in March 2021. This should help with your fifth point regarding the "number of businesses in each county."
The data tables in the publication break down the number of UK businesses by district, county and unitary authority. Table 1 is shown at enterprise level. This means that the whole of the business is shown at the location of its registered head office address. Some businesses have many sites, e.g. shops or factories, across the UK. If you are interested in knowing the number of local units (sites) in a particular location then Table 16 shows the number of local units broken down by district, county, and unitary authority. (Please note that the publication does not include the very small businesses that are below the VAT and PAYE thresholds.)
Over time there have been changes to some of the counties that you have listed. Some are now unitary authorities, and some names have changed but hopefully you can find everything you need in these tables.
If you have any questions about your request, please e-mail idbr.das@ons.gov.uk.