Rural Payments Agency

Yes, my Lords. The RPA has 900 staff, of whom probably only a handful have brought odium upon the others who are doing a decent job. They do work other than on the single payments, which account for only about 10 per cent of the workload. There is no evidence that any single payments have been delayed because of those unprofessional activities. Senior staff from the RPA’s headquarters were dispatched to Newcastle to sort out the issue. That is all I can say about it at the moment, as an internal inquiry is going on.