Rural Payments Agency

No, my Lords, I think I am obliged first to answer questions from the Front Benches. I will of course answer other questions in due course. Of course the delays are causing real hardship. We appreciate that very much, which is why we were so disappointed not to receive until 14 March of this year the advice which first told us that these payments would not be met in bulk by the end of March. The advice we have received from the banks so far is that they are not seeing any change in the number of farm business failures and that no otherwise viable business is likely to fail as a result of the timing of payments. On Thursday I will be seeing the banks; I saw them last December; and, in answer to the noble Baroness, I am also seeing the suppliers AIC later this week. The noble Baroness asked about who we are focusing on. In practice we are giving priority to those who received payments under the old CAP schemes, which the single payment scheme has replaced. They are the ones for whom cash flow may be an issue, as their annual income is traditionally supplemented by a CAP payment by this time of year. New applicants in 2005—there are many of those—generally have much smaller payments due. These are people who did not apply under the old schemes but who are applying under the new scheme because it is based on land rather than on production. As to the noble Baroness’s comments about the Secretary of State and myself, we take our responsibilities extremely seriously and I think her remarks were a little cheap. In response to the noble Baroness, Lady Miller, I have already mentioned that we are focusing on those for whom cash flow may be a really important issue. We accept that there are a number of those. I was asked about a more definite timetable. I want to be cautious. In the past there has probably been too much easy forecasting and not enough solid fact. Until we get the next advice from the new chief executive, I am not prepared to make forecasts about future payments. I can tell the House how much has been paid to date, and at my weekly meetings with the NFU, CLA and the TFA we will regularly let them know what the weekly figures are as they advance. In the past week £60 million of claims were met and in the three and a half weeks before last week £75 million of claims were met. So there was a considerable improvement during the course of the past week. The noble Baroness, Lady Miller, will know that a further review is to start immediately to ensure that we get some results in time to affect next year’s scheme. We will not allow the remainder of the review to interfere in any way with what we need to do to get the 2005 payments out, which is the absolute essential and our first priority. This review will involve a team of consultants and will focus on getting all the processes right, especially for next year. It is essential that we have a good look at how the RPA works and how it is run. It is a big organisation and that is what the Hunter review will do. The precise details of the RPA’s actions are for the new chief executive to firm up. We are focusing resources—a priority for medium-sized claims—to maximise the value of the payments, not the actual number of claimants. With regard to disproportionate checks, some did turn out to be either duplicated or of very little value. As I have told the House already, four out of six checks at the payment stage have now been dropped. The noble Baroness asked about RPA staffing. I shall write to her or answer her if she raises these matters in the debate on Thursday.