Rural Payments Agency

My Lords, with the leave of the House, I shall now repeat in the form of a Statement the Answer given by my right honourable friend the Secretary of State to a Question asked in another place earlier this afternoon. The Statement is as follows: ““In my Written Statement on 16 March, I told the House that the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) had advised me for the first time on 14 March that it would no longer be possible to make the bulk of single payment scheme (SPS) payments by 31 March and that, in the light of this unacceptable situation, a new chief executive would be appointed. ““I fully understand and share anxieties that these events will cause to the farming community and deeply regret that this unacceptable situation has arisen. ““I received an initial report from the acting chief executive (Mark Addison) into the situation at the RPA on 21 March. ““There are substantial problems facing the RPA in getting SPS payments out to farmers, much greater than had previously been reported to Ministers. As I know the House and the farming community would expect, speeding up those payments remains the overwhelming priority of Defra Ministers and the RPA itself. However, it also remains essential that actions taken now in response to these problems are very carefully considered, but are also sure-footed to avoid making them still worse in the future. ““Mr Addison’s report identified some initial steps, which should enable us to speed up payments, without losing sight of the need to properly manage the disbursement of a large sum of public money. ““The initial steps which I have sanctioned are: focusing resources in the RPA on making the 2005 payments as fast as is legally possible; removing disproportionate checks from the payment authorisation system to speed up the flow of payments once claims have been validated; prioritising work on validation of claims to release the maximum value of payments as quickly as possible, as opposed to the maximum number of individual claims, an action which will mainly benefit historic customers; centralising key mapping work at the most productive office (Reading); reviewing what further steps can be taken to simplify the process so that decisions can be made later this week; strengthening the RPA’s capacity in key areas and changing the RPA’s structure to streamline command and control. ““The Minister for Sustainable Farming and Food (Lord Bach) and the RPA acting chief executive have invited senior representatives of the industry to weekly meetings, the first of which took place on 22 March, so that close contact can be maintained with them, and will also be engaging urgently with the banks and other key stakeholders. ““Central to the success of these steps is the team at RPA. I am confident that with Mark Addison at the helm, we have in place the right people for the job in this next stage. Their work and commitment remain key to delivery. They have worked with absolute dedication throughout often in the face of considerable difficulties. I am sure they will continue to do so””. My Lords, that concludes the Statement.