In April, the European Parliament and council agreed a directive on e-invoicing in public procurement, and plans to adopt it by May 2017.
The government have excluded an e-invoicing standard from a set of illustrative regulations published on 12 January 2015, which covers reforms to public procurement proposed this directive.
It said that although it is committed to increasing the take-up of e-invoicing to improve efficiency, it wanted to make sure that any new regulations do not have the opposite effect.
In its response to an initial consultation on the reforms, which closed in November, the government said: “The imposition of an e-invoicing standard in the public sector that has not been agreed as acceptable, could impose costs and burdens on public bodies, suppliers and service providers. For example, care would need to be taken to ensure that any UK rules do not undermine the steps that organisations have already taken towards e-invoicing, or require significant system changes both when the Regulations come in and once the European standard has been adopted.”
The initial consultation response identified potential barriers such as not understanding the costs of procuring the e-invoicing software and the technology itself, the technological capability of suppliers and the public sector, integration costs and internal resources.
Tim Cole, Director at Causway Technologies and BASDA General Council Member, comments:
“Although the UK has not yet required the adoption of e-invoicing, as is the case in other countries, it has provided one of the most supportive environments in which companies can access the considerable benefits that such an approach affords. The caution being taken by Crown Commercial Service officials may well set back the adoption of e-invoicing within the UK Public Sector. This would be a great shame. However, the UK Government is absolutely right to prevent anything that encumbers companies with un-necessary costs or practical burdens as they strive to achieve business efficiency.
It is a good time to remind ourselves that UK business – whether public or private sector – is fully able to embrace e-invoicing benefits today. The legislation going through Parliament is only really about providing an incentive to embrace beneficial change and is rightly making sure we don’t introduce any ballast along the way. As for standards – BASDA standards already under-pin the exchange of millions of e-invoices every year.”