The government has said it is pressing ahead with legislation forcing large companies to include payment information in their annual reports.

In a written answer, business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said: “We are announcing that we will lay secondary legislation in this parliamentary session to make it a requirement for large companies to include information about their payment performance in their annual reports.

“This measure will help increase transparency around the payment practices of large businesses and bring them into focus for boards and investors.”

Source: Department for Business and Trade/flickr

Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds

He added: “The Department for Business and Trade will also launch a public consultation within months on additional legislative measures to address late payments and long payment terms.”

It also said that new legislation would come into force that will “require qualifying companies and LLPs to publish certain information on their practices, policies and performance with respect to retention clauses in any qualifying construction contracts with suppliers”.

This will means firms will have to say what proportion of money paid to suppliers is being held back as a retention and how much is being held from them in retentions by clients.