Question
By what measures Parliament will be able to assess the performance of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs with respect to single farm payments bearing in mind that it has not indicated when future single farm payments are to be made.
Answer
My right honourable friend the Secretary of State said in his Statement on 22 June (Official Report, col. 1478) that delivery of the 2006 single payment scheme will be very challenging and that he did not want to commit to a particular payment timetable until the chief executive of the Rural Payments Agency has had an opportunity to make a realistic assessment of the prospects. That remains the position. Once a payment timetable has been decided, my right honourable friend will make a Statement to the House and publish performance targets for the agency.