UK Industry Data
2024 – 2025
UK industry payment benchmarks
Average payment days, AP fraud risk, estimated fraud losses and incident likelihood across all 19 UK SIC industry sectors.
Benchmark by Industry
19 sectors
Industry
Avg. Payment Days
AP Fraud Risk
Est Fraud Loss
Likelihood & Avg Cost
A
30
Moderate
£20m
1 in 6 • £12k avg
B
50
Moderate
£12m
1 in 6 • £18k avg
C
52
High
£150m
1 in 3 • £22k avg
D
38
Low
£40m
1 in 8 • £35k avg
E
38
Low
£20m
1 in 8 • £25k avg
F
72
Critical
£250m
1 in 3 • £28k avg
G
32
High
£125m
1 in 4 • £18k avg
H
48
High
£50m
1 in 5 • £15k avg
I
20
Low
£40m
1 in 7 • £8k avg
J
20
Moderate
£65m
1 in 5 • £25k avg
K
35
Moderate
£175m
1 in 5 • £45k avg
L
28
Moderate
£40m
1 in 6 • £30k avg
M
45
High
£65m
1 in 4 • £20k avg
N
42
Moderate
£50m
1 in 5 • £15k avg
O
25
Moderate
200m
1 in 5 • £40k avg
P
30
Low
£40m
1 in 8 • £15k avg
Q
48
Low
£250m
1 in 4 • £35k avg
R
38
Moderate
£20m
1 in 7 • £10k avg
S
32
Low
£15m
1 in 9 • £8k avg
How AP Fraud Happens
The four most common ways businesses lose money through accounts payable fraud.
Invoice Redirection
Fraudster impersonates a supplier and requests bank detail changes, diverting legitimate payments.
Mandate Fraud
Intercepting and altering legitimate payment instructions between buyer and supplier.
Duplicate Invoicing
Submitting the same invoice multiple times in high-volume AP environments.
False Supplier Creation
Setting up fictitious vendor accounts in the AP system to process fraudulent payments.
64% of UK businesses still lack automated invoice matching (Ivalua 2024), leaving them exposed to all four fraud types.
How AP Fraud Happens
The four most common ways businesses lose money through accounts payable fraud.
Industry
Risk
Est Loss
Why
1
Critical
£250m
Complex subcontractor chains, multi-stage payments, ~£100m/yr in invoice fraud alone. Avg loss per incident ~£27,700.
2
High
£250m
NHS alone has £1.3bn vulnerable to fraud (NHSCFA). Mandate fraud and false supplier invoicing across public/private providers.
3
Moderate
£200m
Local govt spends £55bn on procurement. NAO estimates £55–81bn total public sector fraud/error. Scale creates exposure despite strong controls.
4
Moderate
£175m
£1.17bn total payment fraud in 2024 (UK Finance). High-value AP transactions despite strong compliance frameworks.
5
High
£150m
High-volume supplier payments, complex BOMs, global supply chains. 44% more likely to pay late — creating confusion fraudsters exploit.
6
High
£125m
Retail accounts for ~49% of all fraud by value in 2024. Extensive vendor networks and high transaction volume.
About this data
Payment benchmarks are derived from UK government payment practices reporting, Atradius B2B Payment Practices 2025, Coface UK Payment Survey 2025, Begbies Traynor debtor days analysis, Xero Small Business Index, and GoCardless industry research. AP fraud risk assessments and estimated fraud loss values are based on UK Finance Annual Fraud Report 2025, NHS Counter Fraud Authority 2024–25, Public Sector Fraud Authority Annual Report 2024–25, Crowe/Peters & Peters Annual Fraud Indicator 2023, Trustpair UK Fraud Report 2025, Ivalua invoice fraud research 2024, Cifas Fraudscape 2025, and the GOV.UK Economic & Social Cost of Fraud 2023–24. Fraud loss values are mid-point estimates proportioned by sector GVA, risk profile, and available incident data. Directly sourced figures are available for Construction, Health, Public Admin, and Financial Services; other sectors are estimated.