Rural Payments Agency

My Lords, I declare an interest as one of many thousands of farmers who remain unpaid. For me, the two most startling points in the Statement were the late discovery that the level of chaos in the RPA was such that not until 14 March did it reveal to the Government that it could not comply with the promise, made on many occasions, that the bulk of the payments would be through by the end of March. That is completely extraordinary. The other matter of dismay to the country is that the Minister is not in a position today to give any forecast of when these payments will be made. I accept the integrity of the position he takes: he is not giving us a false forecast. But it is a very desperate position when a Minister cannot say that, ““at least by the end of April”” or ““by the end of May””, the payments would all be through the machine. He cannot even say that, which is deplorable.