Written question asked by Duke of Montrose (Conservative), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Lord Henley (Conservative) on Wednesday, 23 March 2011.

Agriculture: Single Farm Payments

Question: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether arrangements are in place to employ sufficient staff to carry out manual checking of single farm payments applications if there is a risk that they will not meet the 30 June deadline set by the European Union.

Answer: The Government remain committed to making outstanding payments under the 2010 single payment scheme as soon as possible and to do so with a focus on accuracy so as to help address the legacy of errors and EU fines. With the exception of a small numbers of claims, for example involving probate, the intention is that all payments will be made within the regulatory payment window ending on 30 June. The Rural Payments Agency is considering a number of options, including manually validated payments for the full claim value, to help ensure that this happens in practice. Part of that consideration involves confirming that the necessary resources are available to deploy each of the options.

Secondary information