Single Payment Scheme

: I acknowledge that. I spent three decades in the world of information and communications technology and large-scale systems. We do not have the time to deal with that but my fellow rapporteur, whom I shall call my hon. Friend the Member for Brecon and Radnorshire (Mr. Williams), looked in particular detail at that when we went to Reading. My hon. Friend the Member for Stroud (Mr. Drew) made the point that the complexity of the system is at the very heart and root of the problems experienced, which is partly true. It was always possible for the Government to have a hybrid system where in year one the historic element was 100 per cent. In other words the transfer and increase in area payment could have started in year two. That was always a possibility and it was always likely that there would be problems in such a system on the scale we have seen. It is easy to be wise after the event, but I have never encountered such a large-scale system, in which the estimates of resource required were taken directly from the volumes of people in receipt of historic payments. It would have been professionally desirable or even expected to take small samples of land holdings in various parts of the country, analyse the expected volume and complexity expected to arise and then extrapolate from that. That would have produced a far more accurate picture of what the RPA was facing, so I do not accept that the hybrid element is necessarily at the root of the problems. It is very much a human tragedy for some farmers. I quote from an e-mail that I shall anonymise:"““At a recent NFU meeting at Oaks in Charwood (where there were around 120 farmers) not one farmer had had their payment and not one had had a validated entitlement form either!””" The e-mail continues:"““I have had to take out more borrowings from the bank to bridge the difference in my cashflow, and to keep my business afloat. I am not on my own. I have outstanding invoices from other farmers dating back from last November as they cannot afford to pay me.””" A particularly incestuous spiral is being pressed down because of the enormous amount of inter-trading that goes on in agriculture.