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Rural Payments Agency

My Lords, I, too, thank the noble Lord, Lord King of Bridgwater, whose enormous experience of government made him a very appropriate person to open this debate. When dealing with the government Statement on Tuesday, the Minister appeared somewhat surprised that the opinion of my agricultural acquaintances—I declare my interest for the second time today as a farmer—was rather less complimentary than he appeared to think that it ought to be. I hold up a paper to demonstrate why that is so. The Minister recognises it instantly as the March version of Farming Link from his Department. It came out with a survey requesting information on the quality of the service that it provided a fortnight after it was announced that the payment system was broken down, with the headline:"““Full payments on track for farmers””."