Single Payment Scheme

: No, I will not. I have only four minutes left to cover a great many questions, and I would rather get through as many as I can. A number of hon. Members have called for partial or interim payments. The Government have made it absolutely clear that we do not rule out the possibility of the need for such payments if there is no alternative. I remind hon. Members—this was acknowledged by the hon. Member for East Surrey (Mr. Ainsworth), I think—that that has potential disadvantages, including the impact on the 2006 payment timetable. I would like to add that at every turn in the past two weeks the industry has been kept fully informed. My hon. Friend, Lord Bach, and Mr. Addison met the industry leaders last Wednesday. They met again earlier today to take stock of the situation and to discuss the actions points that I have just announced. After today's meeting, I am told, the industry said that it welcomed the steps that had been taken. It thought that they would be helpful. The hon. Member for Vale of York (Miss McIntosh), and a number of others, raised the question of whether the way in which we have chosen to pay the single farm payment was part of the problem. They are right to say that we adopted a different system in England, but I would describe it as more sustainable rather than more complex, as some have described it. The system was supported during the debate on Monday's urgent question by the hon. Member for South-East Cambridgeshire (Mr. Paice) as a system that was chosen correctly. The hon. Lady was right to point out that Scotland and Wales have chosen different historic systems but, as she and other hon. Members will be aware, a number of member states chose to adopt the historic system and are beginning to wonder whether they made the right decision. In 10 or so years' time, would it be sustainable for farmers to be paid money based on what they had received 10 years before? We made the judgment that would not be sustainable, which was supported by the official Opposition Front Bench if not by the hon. Lady and my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud (Mr. Drew). However, we still think that that was the right system. The hon. Member for East Surrey asked for my judgment of the problem with the RPA. As a Minister who has come to the subject relatively fresh in the past few days, nearly having to stand in for the Secretary of State on Monday and having to answer to today's debate, my judgment is that it was a problem of leadership trying to manage a complex organisation and a real problem of aversion to risk.