BT Secures Silver Award Under the UK’s New Fair Payment Code

Broadband and telecoms giant BT has joined the new UK Government backed Fair Payment Code (FPC) and, in the process, just became the largest information technology business to achieve a Silver Award under the scheme. The FPC is overseen by the Office of the Small Business Commissioner (OSBC).

For those who may be unfamiliar with this. The FPC recently replaced the previous Prompt Payment Code (PPC) and is a system of awards – Gold, Silver, and Bronze – offered by the OSBC to encourage UK businesses to improve their payment practices.

The aim is to tackle the problems that often get caused by late payments between businesses, which it does by setting expectations for how quickly invoices should be paid. The awards themselves thus reflect payment performance by a company.

To be awarded by the FPC, businesses must provide not only evidence of their payment data but also their payment practices as they commit to the Code’s principles of being Clear, Fair and Collaborative with their suppliers.

Johnny McQuoid, MD of Group Business Services at BT, said:

“As the UK’s digital backbone, at BT, we’re working with suppliers in all sectors, of all sizes, and we know how important timely payment is for their cash flow. We’re very proud to hold the Fair Payment Code Silver award. As well as a mark of trust for our suppliers, it’s an important recognition of the hard work our teams across BT are doing to be clear, fair and collaborative with our supply chain.”