The UK publishes a great deal of data about how businesses pay each other, and almost none of it is read. These are our own analyses of that data. Each one states its source, its method and its limitations, and publishes the aggregated figures so anyone can check the arithmetic.
We analysed 114,756 payment practices reports from 10,238 large UK companies. The median share of invoices paid outside agreed terms fell from 26% in 2018 to 15% in 2025 — and it is not because payment terms got longer.
How we work. We use official sources — government registers, regulators and central banks — and we say what we excluded and why. Where a finding could be explained away by something other than the effect we claim, we test that explanation and publish the test, whether or not it survives. Figures are free to reuse with attribution; see each study for the citation and the data.
For practical material rather than research, see our guides, comparisons and tools.