Our annual procurement spend amounts to around £1 billion. 80% of our spend is with around 250 suppliers both in the UK and across the world.

We are currently working to implement a standardised approach to supply chain management across E.ON UK in 2006. A Responsible Procurement Policy was approved by the E.ON UK Executive Board (EUEB) in October 2005. In addition, we are currently working on techniques to integrate social and environmental considerations into our purchasing decisions, and developing ways of monitoring our performance in this area.

Our terms of payment specify that bills are paid within 30 days unless the contract or supplier specifies otherwise - for example, agencies supplying temporary staff may require payment within 14 days while other contracts require immediate payment. We do not record average numbers of creditor days.

Our Accounts Payable team deals with enquiries or complaints about late payment of bills as they arise. We do not record details of the number of complaints centrally, although our team endeavours to ensure that all invoices are paid in a timely manner. A list of outstanding invoices that are over three months old is regularly sent to the relevant business unit to ensure that delays in payment are minimised.

We are currently developing a standardised approach across our businesses to measure supplier satisfaction and collate supplier feedback.