Before you sign your next contract, you can look up how your client pays its suppliers. The record is public, free, and takes around two minutes to read. Most freelancers never check it. New research published on 2 November 2026 shows why that is a mistake: 2,117 of 5,703 large UK firms (37%) told the government they had agreed at least one supplier contract with payment terms longer than 60 days, the maximum the Commercial Payments Bill would allow.

The payment practices register is the government’s public record of how large companies and limited liability partnerships pay their suppliers. Every large firm has to report twice a year: its standard payment terms, the longest term it agreed in any contract, its average time to pay, and the share of invoices it paid late. I read the full Whito research behind the headline figure, and the detail is more useful than the headline. It tells you which clients to take seriously, which ones to negotiate with, and which ones to walk away from, before you do a single hour of work.

This is general information, not legal or financial advice. If the amount is large or the situation is disputed, get proper professional advice.

What the new research found

Research firm Whito downloaded the register’s full export on 2 November 2026: 116,697 reports, and the latest report for each of 6,110 large UK companies and LLPs whose reporting period ended in 2026. Of those, 5,703 gave a usable maximum contractual payment period. Here is how they spread out:

Longest payment term agreedFirmsShare
30 days or less1,18321%
31 to 45 days4027%
46 to 60 days2,00135%
61 to 90 days1,38624%
91 to 120 days4237%
121 to 180 days1913%
More than 180 days1172%

The firms past the proposed 60-day line add up to 2,117, or 37%. Of those, 731 agreed terms past 90 days, and 71 reported a maximum term of a year or more. Another 1,957 firms sit exactly on the line at 60 days. Only 1,183, around one in five, keep every contract at 30 days or less.

The sector table matters for freelancers, because your clients cluster in a few industries. Manufacturing is the most exposed: 678 of 932 large manufacturers (73%) go past 60 days. Wholesale and retail is next at 476 of 774 (62%). The sectors most freelancers actually sell into sit in the middle: professional, scientific and technical services at 135 of 435 (31%), and information and communication at 135 of 444 (30%). Finance and insurance is near the bottom at 13%, and education at 7%.

The second finding is the one that should change how you read a long term. Firms past the line also pay more slowly in practice, on their own figures. Their median firm takes 41 days on average to pay an invoice, against 27 days for firms at 60 days or less. Only 39% of their invoices are paid within 30 days, against 76% for firms inside the line. And 433 of the 5,703 firms report an average time to pay of more than 60 days, which means the typical invoice, not just the longest contract, takes over two months.

Separate research from Tungsten Automation, published on 5 November 2026 and based on the same government register, fills in the picture. Across the companies it analysed, £138 million worth of invoices were paid beyond agreed terms in 2026, around £4.9 million per company surveyed. Every business analysed had failed to pay at least some invoices on time, with an average of 17% of invoices paid late. Around 36% of invoices were paid between 31 and 60 days, and 15% took 61 days or longer. Only 3% of invoices went unpaid because of a dispute, which tells you something important: late payment is rarely about a disagreement over the work. It is about process, cash flow, and habit.

What the numbers do not prove

Before you use these figures, understand their limits. Whito is clear about them, and so should you be.

First, the maximum term is the longest term a firm agreed with any supplier in the period. It can come from a single special contract, such as annual billing or stock held on credit, and it is not the term most suppliers get. A firm can report a 120-day maximum while paying most suppliers in 30 days. That is why you should read the maximum term together with the average days to pay and the share paid within 30 days, not on its own.

Second, none of this is law-breaking. The 60-day cap is a proposal in a Bill that has not received Royal Assent. No firm on the register has broken a law by agreeing a 90-day term, and the Bill’s final wording may exempt some of the contracts behind these figures. Do not treat a long maximum term as proof that a client is a bad payer. Treat it as a question to ask before you sign.

Third, groups report entity by entity, so one group can appear several times in the figures. And the reporting periods differ: most reports in the Whito analysis ended in June 2026, with a smaller group ending in September 2026. The register is a snapshot, not a live feed.

None of that makes the data useless. It makes it a screening tool, not a verdict. A client with a 120-day maximum term and a 45-day average is telling you something different from a client with a 120-day maximum and a 25-day average. The register lets you tell them apart in two minutes.

How to check a client in two minutes

The register is free and needs no account. Here is the whole check:

  1. Go to check-payment-practices.service.gov.uk and search the company by name. Use the legal name on your contract, not the brand name, and check the company number matches.
  2. Open its latest report. Read four numbers: the maximum contractual payment period, the standard payment terms, the average time taken to pay invoices, and the share of invoices paid within 30 days.
  3. Read one more: the share of invoices paid later than the agreed terms. This is the firm’s own admission of how often it misses its own deadlines.
  4. Compare. A firm with a 30-day standard term that pays 80% of invoices within 30 days is a normal, functioning payer. A firm with a 90-day maximum term, a 41-day average, and 17% paid late is telling you to price the wait into your fee or negotiate harder.

If your client is a small agency, a startup, or a sole trader, it will not be on the register at all. The reporting duty covers large companies and LLPs only. For smaller clients, your contract is your only protection, which is why our guide to invoice payment terms walks through the five lines your terms should include.

What to do with what you find

The register gives you a number. Here is how to turn it into a decision.

Maximum term of 30 days or less, average under 30 days. Take the work on normal terms. This is the one-in-five group. Ask for your usual 14 or 30 days and move on.

Maximum term of 31 to 60 days. This is normal for large clients. Check the average days to pay. If the average is under 30 days, the long maximum is probably one special contract and you have little to worry about. If the average is over 40 days, treat the client as a slow payer even if the headline term looks fine.

Maximum term of 61 to 90 days. Negotiate before you start. Ask for 30-day terms in your contract, or a deposit upfront with the balance on delivery, or staged payments across the project. If the client will not move on terms, price the wait into your fee: a 90-day term on a £3,000 invoice means you are lending the client £3,000 for three months. Our guide to your UK late payment rights explains the statutory interest you can already charge, 8% above the Bank of England base rate, plus fixed compensation of £40 to £100 per late invoice.

Maximum term over 90 days, or an average time to pay over 60 days. Treat this as a red flag. Ask for payment upfront or in stages, with a pause-work clause if a stage is late. If the client refuses and the project is large, consider walking away. A client whose own reports say it pays slowly is not going to pay you faster because you asked nicely.

Already mid-contract with a slow payer. You cannot rewrite a signed contract, but you can tighten the next one. Raise the register figures at renewal: they are the firm’s own published numbers, which makes the conversation factual rather than personal. And start the clock properly on every invoice: a specific due date on the invoice, a reminder on the day it passes, and escalation while the debt is fresh. Our guide to chasing late payments maps the full sequence from reminder to Money Claims Online.

The law that would change all this

The Commercial Payments Bill would put a hard ceiling on payment terms: 60 days for most business-to-business contracts, 30 days where the buyer is a public authority, with strictly limited exemptions. Terms longer than the cap would be void, and interest on late payments at 8% above the Bank of England base rate would become mandatory, with no contracting out. The Small Business Commissioner would gain powers to investigate disputes, require firms to publish payment data, and issue enforcement directions carrying penalties of up to 1% of annual UK turnover. Dispute rules would also tighten: summaries of the Bill say buyers would have to raise a dispute at least eight days before the payment date, or face automatic penalties.

Where does the Bill stand? It was introduced in the House of Lords in May 2026, cleared its Lords third reading on 20 October 2026, and is now in the House of Commons as Bill 166, awaiting its second reading. We checked the Bill’s stage on the Parliament website while writing this article. The devolved legislatures are now doing their part: the Scottish Parliament’s Economy, Tourism and Energy Committee considered its approach to the legislative consent memorandums on 3 November 2026, and the Northern Ireland Committee for the Economy took a written briefing on 4 November. There is still no start date. The government has said it will consult further on implementation timing, and the reforms are expected to come into force in 2027.

The Bill would not fix everything. Debt recovery specialist Federal Management, in a statement on 2 November 2026, welcomed the reforms but warned that stronger legislation alone will not guarantee payment: “the businesses that recover what they are owed are those that escalate promptly, before recovery prospects diminish.” A 60-day cap helps with slow but cooperative customers. It cannot compel a debtor who has stopped communicating to settle, which is why the Tungsten finding matters: only 3% of invoices go unpaid because of a dispute. The rest go unpaid because nobody chased them hard enough, early enough.

There is also a contrast worth knowing if you have clients in the EU. On 4 November 2026, the European Commission withdrew its proposed late-payment Regulation from its 2027 work programme, after co-legislators declined to bring forward an answer. The Payment Observatory’s preliminary findings put the share of companies reporting late-payment problems in 2025 at 52%. The UK is now going its own way on payment terms while the EU leaves the rules to national frameworks, so a freelancer with EU clients should check the payment rules country by country rather than assuming a single European standard exists.

Your two-minute check before Monday

Late payment costs the UK economy around £11 billion a year, according to GOV.UK, and the government estimates around 38 businesses close every day because they are not paid on time. You cannot fix the economy. You can fix your own client list, and the register gives you the tool to do it.

  1. List your three biggest clients by annual value.
  2. Look each one up on the payment practices register and note its maximum term and average days to pay.
  3. For the worst of the three, raise it at your next renewal: shorter terms, a deposit, or staged payments, backed by the firm’s own published figures.
  4. Add the check to your onboarding for every new large client, before you quote a price.
  5. If a client is already late, do not wait for the Bill. Your rights under the 1998 Act exist today: statutory interest, fixed compensation, and the courts. Use our late payment interest calculator to work out what the wait is costing you, then chase it.

The 60-day cap may become law in 2027, or it may not. Either way, the register is live now, the figures are the firms’ own, and two minutes of checking beats three months of chasing.

Quick answers

Is a 90-day payment term illegal right now?

No. Terms over 60 days are only unenforceable if they are grossly unfair to the supplier, under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 as amended by the 2013 Regulations. The Commercial Payments Bill would void terms over 60 days, but it is not law yet and has no start date. Today, your contract decides when you are paid.

Does a long maximum term mean my client pays everyone slowly?

Not necessarily. The maximum term is the longest term a firm agreed with any supplier, and it can come from a single special contract. Check the average days to pay and the share of invoices paid within 30 days on the same report: a firm with a 120-day maximum and a 25-day average pays most suppliers quickly, while a firm with a 90-day maximum and a 41-day average is slow across the board.

My client is a small agency. Will it be on the register?

Probably not. The reporting duty covers large companies and LLPs only, so a small agency, startup, or sole trader will not appear. For smaller clients, your protection is the contract you sign, not the register. Put a specific due date and a late-payment clause in your terms before you start work.

What should I do if my biggest client is past the 60-day line?

Check its average days to pay first, then negotiate at renewal: ask for 30-day terms, a deposit upfront, or staged payments. If the client will not move, price the wait into your fee. If the project is large and the client refuses every safeguard, consider walking away. A client whose own published reports say it pays slowly is unlikely to pay you faster because you asked nicely.

When will the 60-day cap become law?

There is no start date. The Bill cleared the House of Lords on 20 October 2026 and is now in the House of Commons awaiting its second reading. It still has to pass the Commons and receive Royal Assent, and the government has said it will consult on implementation timing. The reforms are expected to come into force in 2027, but the detail may still change.

Sources