What is the Fair Payment Code? How to check if a customer has signed up

The government-backed Fair Payment Code has now awarded more than 800 UK businesses for how they pay their suppliers. The Office of the Small Business Commissioner, which runs the Code, announced the milestone on 28 October 2026. When we checked the Code's website on 31 October 2026, it showed 841 awardees.

If you sell to other businesses, the Code is a free way to see which customers have committed, publicly, to paying on time. Here is how it works.

What the Fair Payment Code is

The Fair Payment Code is a tiered system of awards for paying suppliers fairly and quickly. It is administered by the Office of the Small Business Commissioner on behalf of the UK Government, and it replaced the Prompt Payment Code. There is no charge to take part.

There are three award tiers:

• Gold: paying at least 95% of all invoices within 30 days
• Silver: paying at least 95% of all invoices within 60 days, including at least 95% of invoices to small businesses (with fewer than 50 employees) within 30 days
• Bronze: paying at least 95% of all invoices within 60 days

Awards last for two years, and each business has to reapply at the end of that period.

What awardees sign up to

Every awardee also agrees to the Code's principles of being Clear, Fair and Collaborative with suppliers. According to the Code's criteria, these include:

• agreeing payment terms with suppliers and putting them in writing, before work begins, in clear plain English contracts
• communicating promptly with suppliers where payment may be delayed or outside agreed terms
• where delayed payment causes damage to a supplier's business, accepting consequences such as automatically applied late payment interest and compensation under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998
• paying the undisputed parts of an invoice within terms, and resolving disputed parts within the agreed timeframe

How to check a customer

The Code publishes an awardees directory. Each entry shows the business's sector, Companies House number, area, award level, how long the award runs and its registration date. Search by name, and match the Companies House number so you know you have the right company. Our guide to checking a company on Companies House helps with that.

If a customer is not listed, that does not mean it pays late. Businesses choose whether to apply, so it may simply not have applied. For large companies, you can also check their published payment record on GOV.UK.

How to use it

These are practical tips rather than legal requirements:

• Before you agree terms. An award tells you the payment standard a customer has committed to. Use it alongside your own payment terms.
• When you chase. If an awardee pays late, a polite reminder that mentions its award level and the Code's principle of paying undisputed amounts within terms can help your invoice reach the right person.
• If it keeps happening. The Code says it has a complaint system for businesses to highlight awardees that are not meeting the requirements of their award or not following its principles. The Small Business Commissioner can also help with some payment disputes. See our guide to the Small Business Commissioner and unpaid invoices.

Why it matters now

The Small Business Commissioner says late payments cost the UK economy almost £11 billion a year, with 38 businesses closing every day as a result. It also says the Code is helping businesses prepare for the Commercial Payments Bill, which includes a 60 day limit on payment terms, mandatory interest, a payment dispute window and stronger powers for the Commissioner. The Bill has completed its stages in the House of Lords and is now in the House of Commons, where a date for its second reading has not yet been set. It is not yet law.

If it is still not paid

Once an invoice is overdue, start with our checklist on what to do first when an invoice is overdue. You may also have the right to charge interest for late payment, and you can check what you are owed for free.

This post is general information, not legal advice about your situation.

How InvoiceCollect helps

InvoiceCollect chases limited companies and LLPs in England and Wales. It chases the debtor company for 4 weeks by email and text on working days, never more than once a day, plus a posted letter to their registered office. Interest and compensation are added where the legal conditions are met, never on a genuinely disputed invoice. Your customer pays you directly and there is no commission. We are not a law firm. Start your chase.

Sources: Small Business Commissioner, UK Government awards more than 800 businesses on the Fair Payment Code (28 October 2026); Fair Payment Code, Code criteria; Fair Payment Code, About; Fair Payment Code, homepage (awardee numbers, checked 31 October 2026); Fair Payment Code, Awardees directory; UK Parliament, Lords completes examination of Commercial Payments Bill (21 October 2026); [UK Parliament Bills, Commercial Payments Bill [HL]](https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/4128); BCIS, Commercial Payments Bill: proposed legislation clears House of Lords (30 October 2026).