Single Payment Scheme

: My hon. Friend has done the numbers. I do not pretend to have the same detailed understanding, but it does say something that we are entirely dependent on the IT system. The question was asked earlier as to whether we could go back to a manual system. If only it were that easy. To be fair to the Rural Payments Agency, the staff have been working day and night to try to shift the figures. The system itself is fallible, the way in which we approached the policy was wrong, and, dare I say it, the definition of ““farmer”” ought to nailed down so that we pay money to those people who genuinely need it and who are doing a job that we want them to do, rather than to people who pick it up as spare cash. That is unacceptable.