Single Payment Scheme

: The hon. Gentleman makes a good point. I was about to say that the contract was given to Accenture in 2003, before the announcement that there would be a single farm payment scheme in February or March 2004. Indeed, the mid-term review turned out to be much more radical than anyone expected; many of us thought that it would tinker at the edges of the schemes to support farmers. The new firm was given the challenge of dealing with a new scheme. During our inquiry into the RPA, the hon. Member for North-West Leicestershire (David Taylor) and I were told that DEFRA changed the details of the scheme 60 times between initiating the contract and finalising the scheme. At its heart, the problem lies with DEFRA as well as with Accenture and the RPA.