Statutory interest on late payments (4 figures)
The median published figure in the Statutory Late Payment Rate Series is 7.88 percent across 4 sources' own pages (range 3.75 to 8 percent), read 17 October 2026.
4 of the 19 named sources read in full publish a figure; 15 publish none, read 17 October 2026.
The median is down 0.12 percent since 26 September 2026 (was 8 percent across 3).
By period
| Breakdown | Median | Range | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| period1 July 2026 to 31 December 2026 (Bank Rate in force on 30 June 2026) | 3.75% | 3.75 to 3.75% | 1 |
Every figure, with its source
One row per published figure: the figure as the source's own page publishes it, the page, and the day it was read. A figure that is not on a page we read is not on this one.
| Source | Figure | Breakdown | Read |
|---|---|---|---|
| GOV.UK - charging interest on a commercial debt | 8% | 2026-10-17 | |
| Small Business Commissioner - interest calculator | 8% | 2026-10-17 | |
| HMRC interest rates for late and early payments | 7.75% | 2026-10-17 | |
| Bank of England - the interest rate (Bank Rate) | 3.75% | 1 July 2026 to 31 December 2026 (Bank Rate in force on 30 June 2026) | 2026-10-16 |
The sentence each figure was read from (4)
- GOV.UK - charging interest on a commercial debt, read 2026-10-17:
The interest you can charge if another business is late paying for goods or a service is ‘statutory interest’ - this is 8% plus the Bank of England base rate for business to business transactions.
- Small Business Commissioner - interest calculator, read 2026-10-17:
The interest you can charge if another business is late paying for goods or a service is ‘statutory interest’ – this is 8% plus the Bank of England base rate for business-to-business transactions.
- HMRC interest rates for late and early payments, read 2026-10-17:
late payment interest rate — 7.75% from 9 January 2026
- Bank of England - the interest rate (Bank Rate), read 2026-10-16:
Bank Rate maintained at 3.75% - June 2026...
Read in full, publishes no figure
15 named sources were read in full on the dates shown and print no usable figure. They are counted, never filled in.
- GOV.UK - late commercial payments: charging interest and debt recovery, read 2026-09-12: read in full and no accepted figure on the page
- Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 - contents, read 2026-09-11: read in full and no accepted figure on the page
- Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998, section 6 (rate of interest), read 2026-09-12: read in full and no accepted figure on the page
- Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998, section 2 (qualifying debts), read 2026-09-12: read in full and no accepted figure on the page
- Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Rate of Interest) (No. 2) Order 1998, read 2026-09-12: read in full and no accepted figure on the page
- Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Rate of Interest) (No. 3) Order 2002, read 2026-09-11: read in full and no accepted figure on the page
- Bank of England - Bank Rate history and data, read 2026-10-10: read in full and no accepted figure on the page
- Small Business Commissioner - interest calculator guidance, read 2026-09-12: every candidate on the page was refused
- Judgments Act 1838, section 17 (interest on judgment debts), read 2026-10-17: read in full and no accepted figure on the page
- Judgment Debts (Rate of Interest) Order 1993, read 2026-09-12: read in full and no accepted figure on the page
- Late Payment of Commercial Debts Regulations 2013, read 2026-09-12: read in full and no accepted figure on the page
- Procurement Act 2023, section 73 (implied payment terms in public contracts), read 2026-09-12: read in full and no accepted figure on the page
- PPN 018 - a supplier's approach to payment in major contracts, read 2026-09-12: every candidate on the page was refused
- PPN 021 - payment spot checks in public sub-contracts, read 2026-09-12: read in full and no accepted figure on the page
- European Central Bank - key ECB interest rates, read 2026-09-26: read in full and no accepted figure on the page
Methodology
Every row is a verbatim sentence read from the named source's own page through our fetch service on the date shown, hash-pinned to the stored read (the sha of the page's visible text; the raw page is mirrored to R2).
4 of the 19 named sources that could be read published a usable figure; 15 published none and are recorded as not published, never filled in; 0 could not be read (blocked, dead or unreachable) and count nowhere.
The headline figures (median, minimum, maximum, quartiles) are over ONE figure per source in % (a source's median where its page yielded several accepted sentences), so N counts sources, never sentences; 40 candidate sentence(s) were refused by a reviewer with the reason recorded.
The fuller derivation this dataset is chartered to grow into (not yet what the figures above are; they are each source's own published figure as read): one row per six-month statutory period since 1 November 1998: the Bank of England reference rate in force on the preceding 31 December or 30 June, the margin from the rate order then in force, and the resulting statutory rate - the dated series nobody publishes, which is exactly what a calculator needs to price an invoice that went unpaid across a rate change; beside it, the same period's HMRC late-payment rate (base plus 4%), the flat 8% judgment-debt rate and the euro-area directive rate, so the derived figure is the SPREAD between what the state charges a business and what a business may charge another
40 candidate sentences on these pages were refused by a reviewer; each refusal and its reason is recorded in the review ledger.
Sources (19)
- GOV.UK - charging interest on a commercial debt(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- GOV.UK - late commercial payments: charging interest and debt recovery(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 - contents(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998, section 6 (rate of interest)(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998, section 2 (qualifying debts)(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Rate of Interest) (No. 2) Order 1998(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Rate of Interest) (No. 3) Order 2002(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- Bank of England - Bank Rate history and data(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- Bank of England - the interest rate (Bank Rate)(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- Small Business Commissioner - interest calculator guidance(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- Small Business Commissioner - interest calculator(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- HMRC interest rates for late and early payments(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- Judgments Act 1838, section 17 (interest on judgment debts)(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- Judgment Debts (Rate of Interest) Order 1993(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- Late Payment of Commercial Debts Regulations 2013(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- Procurement Act 2023, section 73 (implied payment terms in public contracts)(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- PPN 018 - a supplier's approach to payment in major contracts(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- PPN 021 - payment spot checks in public sub-contracts(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- European Central Bank - key ECB interest rates(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
Cite or embed this figure
The median published figure in the Statutory Late Payment Rate Series is 7.88 percent across 4 sources' own pages (range 3.75 to 8 percent), read 17 October 2026.
4 of the 19 named sources read in full publish a figure; 15 publish none, read 17 October 2026.
Statutory Late Payment Rate Series, period 1 July 2026 to 31 December 2026 (Bank Rate in force on 30 June 2026): median 3.75 percent across 1 source, read 17 October 2026.
The median is down 0.12 percent since 26 September 2026 (was 8 percent across 3).
Cite as: "latepaymentinterest.co.uk Statutory Late Payment Rate Series", updated 2026-10-21, https://latepaymentinterest.co.uk/datasets/statutory-late-payment-rate-series/.
Download the CSV (4 rows, computed 2026-10-21)