Rural Payments Agency

The Secretary of State has attempted to slough off any ministerial responsibility, but if she looks at the report of the debate in Committee on the statutory instrument that set up the Rural Payments Agency she will find that I—along with many others, including some of her hon. Friends—questioned whether the agency’s computer system would be able to handle what was being proposed then, let alone now. Given that that was five years ago, and most of her Ministers are still in place, where does the buck stop?