Parliamentary search - Single Payment Scheme

Type

Parliamentary proceeding

Reference

444 c281-306WH

Session

2005-06

Department

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Chamber / Committee

Westminster Hall

Single Farm Payments
Wednesday, 19 April 2006
Written statements
House of Commons

Proceeding contributions

Ben Bradshaw | 444 c306WH (Link to this contribution) : One of the things that we and the new chief executive of the RPA are absolutely not going to do is...

Peter Ainsworth | 444 c306WH (Link to this contribution) : How confident is the Minister that all payments will be made by the June deadline?

Show all contributions (88)

Speaker | 444 c306WH (Link to this contribution) Order.

Ben Bradshaw | 444 c305WH (Link to this contribution) : They seem to be common sense to me, as well. That is why what I said what I did about the abilitie...

Peter Ainsworth | 444 c305WH (Link to this contribution) : Will the Minister give way?

Ben Bradshaw | 444 c305-6WH (Link to this contribution) : No, I will not. I have only four minutes left to cover a great many questions, and I would rather ...

Mark Todd | 444 c305WH (Link to this contribution) : As someone who ran a major processing operation, I am startled that those seem earth-shattering st...

Ben Bradshaw | 444 c305WH (Link to this contribution) : I want to get to the end of my list, and then I will give way to my hon. Friend. I still have a lo...

Mark Todd | 444 c305WH (Link to this contribution) : Will the Minister give way?

Ben Bradshaw | 444 c304-5WH (Link to this contribution) : I will come to the mapping system in a moment. If the hon. Lady is asking about the immediate revi...

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering | 444 c304WH (Link to this contribution) : Why was a DEFRA official appointed to such a sensitive position to carry out the review? Will the ...

Ben Bradshaw | 444 c303-4WH (Link to this contribution) : The reason, as I understand it, was that although the payments had begun, the speed of the payment...

Viscount Hailsham | 444 c303WH (Link to this contribution) : Will the Minister tell the Chamber what reasons Mr. Johnston McNeill gave for that shortcoming?

Ben Bradshaw | 444 c303WH (Link to this contribution) : I shall come to that point in a little while, but my noble Friend has already responded to that po...

Ben Bradshaw | 444 c302WH (Link to this contribution) : I will give way to the right hon. Gentleman because he is the Chairman of the Select Committee on ...

Michael Jack | 444 c303WH (Link to this contribution) : I am grateful to the Minister. In the light of what he has heard, and his opening remarks, does he...

Michael Jack | 444 c302WH (Link to this contribution) Will the Minister give way?

Roger Williams | 444 c300WH (Link to this contribution) : No, the hon. Gentleman did not. However, it seems that many chartered surveyors will have made a l...

Mark Todd | 444 c300WH (Link to this contribution) : I didn't do it.

Geoffrey Cox | 444 c301WH (Link to this contribution) I, too, declare an interest as a receiver of payments. Does my hon. Friend agree that there is a cr...

Peter Ainsworth | 444 c300-1WH (Link to this contribution) I shall try be brief because the Minister has a large number of questions to answer. I know that he ...

Paddy Tipping | 444 c301WH (Link to this contribution) : It is essential to have a repair programme. Might not interim payments delay final payments? Shoul...

Peter Ainsworth | 444 c301WH (Link to this contribution) : My hon. Friend makes an extremely good point, and asks an important question. I hope that the Mini...

Ben Bradshaw | 444 c302WH (Link to this contribution) : This has been a good, serious and constructive debate, and I will endeavour to cover as many of th...

Peter Ainsworth | 444 c301-2WH (Link to this contribution) : The Secretary of State made that point earlier in the week. If there are genuine problems of that ...

Roger Williams | 444 c300WH (Link to this contribution) : The hon. Gentleman makes the point that even Members of Parliament are now in the scheme. It is ce...

Mark Todd | 444 c299-300WH (Link to this contribution) : I have two hectares of land, and I have been urged by local farmers to make a claim. I have chosen...

Roger Williams | 444 c299WH (Link to this contribution) : The hon. Gentleman makes a good point. I am sometimes told that the money is drawn from the EU as ...

Philip Hollobone | 444 c299WH (Link to this contribution) : Given that the EU has given the Government funding for the scheme, interest is accumulating on tha...

Roger Williams | 444 c298-9WH (Link to this contribution) : I thank my hon. Friend for raising that point. We were told that there was regular communication b...

Dan Rogerson | 444 c298WH (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to my hon. Friend and to the hon. Member for North-West Leicestershire for serving as ...

Roger Williams | 444 c298WH (Link to this contribution) : The hon. Gentleman makes a good point. I was about to say that the contract was given to Accenture...

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering | 444 c281-2WH (Link to this contribution) Welcome to the Chair, Mr. Benton; it is a privilege to appear before you this afternoon. I am delig...

Viscount Hailsham | 444 c282WH (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend accept that one of the most astonishing things for those of us who have served i...

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering | 444 c282WH (Link to this contribution) : I am grateful to my right hon. and learned Friend for that powerful and eloquent contribution. One...

Lord McLoughlin | 444 c282WH (Link to this contribution) The situation is slightly worse than my hon. Friend has just explained. The Government were warned b...

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering | 444 c282WH (Link to this contribution) : I could not have put that more eloquently myself. We are fortunate in having the Select Committee ...

Lord Beith | 444 c283WH (Link to this contribution) The factor that should have loomed large in the Secretary of State's mind was that she had chosen to...

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering | 444 c282WH (Link to this contribution) : I am grateful to my right hon. Friend, and the House is grateful for the Select Committee's excell...

Michael Jack | 444 c282WH (Link to this contribution) Will my hon. Friend also note that an earlier report of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Comm...

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering | 444 c283WH (Link to this contribution) : I hope that my hon. Friend receives that answer this afternoon.

David Leslie Taylor | 444 c283WH (Link to this contribution) The hon. Member for Brecon and Radnorshire (Mr. Williams) and I had the pleasure of being the rappor...

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering | 444 c283WH (Link to this contribution) : I agree entirely with the right hon. Gentleman. I hope that he will support our call for Lord Bach...

Baroness Browning | 444 c283WH (Link to this contribution) Before the Secretary of State sacked the chief executive, I had tabled named-day questions asking ho...

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering | 444 c283WH (Link to this contribution) : The only issue that I would raise with the hon. Gentleman is that the Government seem to be develo...

Lindsay Hoyle | 444 c283WH (Link to this contribution) I thank the hon. Lady for being generous with her time. The chief executive has rightly gone. The co...

Tony Baldry | 444 c284WH (Link to this contribution) Ministers have given, as recently as this week, an undertaking in the House that payments would be m...

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering | 444 c284WH (Link to this contribution) : I endorse what my hon. Friend said. To my knowledge, not one farmer in the Vale of York or North Y...

Lord Wills | 444 c284WH (Link to this contribution) I grateful that the hon. Lady has been incredibly courteous in giving way so often.I do not want to ...

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering | 444 c284WH (Link to this contribution) : I hope that the hon. Gentleman will support my argument that the people involved do not have a sen...

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering | 444 c283-4WH (Link to this contribution) : I am sure that the Minister is better placed to comment on that particular aspect. May I also dra...

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering | 444 c285WH (Link to this contribution) : My understanding of the legal position is that that will not be necessary and that the situation i...

Geoffrey Clifton-Brown | 444 c284-5WH (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend agree that there is an absolute bottom line that we need to achieve from this de...

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering | 444 c285WH (Link to this contribution) : There is a catalogue of errors and misunderstandings, spanning a considerable time, leading up to ...

Philip Hollobone | 444 c285WH (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend accept the point made by Mrs. Rosemary Eady, a farmer in my constituency, who wr...

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering | 444 c286WH (Link to this contribution) : The hon. Gentleman has rightly identified why the scheme is so complicated. Our constituents would...

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering | 444 c285-6WH (Link to this contribution) : Those developments were against the background of a new scheme that was meant to be simpler and ea...

David Drew | 444 c286WH (Link to this contribution) With the benefit of hindsight, everyone would say that the hybrid payments were a dreadful mistake, ...

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering | 444 c285WH (Link to this contribution) : I await with bated breath the Minister's response to that intervention.

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering | 444 c286WH (Link to this contribution) : Indeed—my right hon. and learned Friend pre-empts my concluding remarks. As one farmer told me, t...

John Hayes | 444 c286WH (Link to this contribution) For all its faults, the old IACS system at least allowed for a margin of error and for the Governmen...

Viscount Hailsham | 444 c286WH (Link to this contribution) : That could be readily cured by a payment of interim payments.

Speaker | 444 c288WH (Link to this contribution) Before I call the next speaker, I shall take the opportunity of reminding right hon. and hon. Member...

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering | 444 c286-8WH (Link to this contribution) : I would go further and add that the Minister and the Government need to accept ministerial respons...

David Drew | 444 c288WH (Link to this contribution) I shall be brief because I have rehearsed the two points that I want to make. This has been a disas...

Paddy Tipping | 444 c288-9WH (Link to this contribution) The mid-term review and further changes in the common agricultural policy will inevitably mean new a...

David Drew | 444 c289WH (Link to this contribution) : I agree entirely and I hope that the Government will learn that lesson wholesale. We must go forwa...

Lynne Jones | 444 c289-90WH (Link to this contribution) The Minister stated in a letter to the Select Committee that the original contract signed in January...

David Drew | 444 c290WH (Link to this contribution) : My hon. Friend has done the numbers. I do not pretend to have the same detailed understanding, but...

Keith Simpson | 444 c290WH (Link to this contribution) I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Vale of York (Miss McIntosh) on securing this debate. I...

Baroness Browning | 444 c290WH (Link to this contribution) : As a member of the Public Accounts Committee, I suggest that Sir John Bourn and the National Audit...

Keith Simpson | 444 c290-2WH (Link to this contribution) : Yes. To be fair, instead of amateurs like us, a body such as the Public Accounts Committee should ...

David Leslie Taylor | 444 c292WH (Link to this contribution) We must not lose sight of the fact that, irrespective of how many tonnes of metaphorical slurry we d...

Tony Baldry | 444 c292WH (Link to this contribution) The debate has quite rightly focused on payments, but as my hon. Friend the Member for Mid-Norfolk (...

David Leslie Taylor | 444 c292-3WH (Link to this contribution) : I acknowledge that. I spent three decades in the world of information and communications technolog...

Mark Todd | 444 c298WH (Link to this contribution) : Does the hon. Gentleman accept that one of the differences is that risk has been loaded on risk wh...

Roger Williams | 444 c297-8WH (Link to this contribution) I, too, congratulate the hon. Member for Vale of York (Miss McIntosh) on securing this debate at suc...

Philip Dunne | 444 c296-7WH (Link to this contribution) : The hon. Gentleman speaks with some authority on that subject, as he is chairman of the all-party ...

Tim Farron | 444 c296WH (Link to this contribution) I am sure that the hon. Gentleman is aware that farmers in less favoured areas are suffering even mo...

Patrick Hall | 444 c293WH (Link to this contribution) On my hon. Friend's point about compensation, given the fact that the bulk of farmers had a clear ex...

David Leslie Taylor | 444 c294-5WH (Link to this contribution) : That is a fair point, and the Minister will have heard it. In my experience the 80–20 rule comes ...

Philip Dunne | 444 c295-6WH (Link to this contribution) I shall try to keep my remarks as brief as I can. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Vale ...

David Leslie Taylor | 444 c293-4WH (Link to this contribution) : I have a great deal of confidence in the Minister and I have every expectation that in a masterly ...

John Hayes | 444 c294WH (Link to this contribution) : The hon. Gentleman is speaking with characteristic candour and clarity about the matter. Farmers i...

Tony Baldry | 444 c296WH (Link to this contribution) : Is not one of the many problems for farmers the fact that they cannot find anyone to talk to? When...

Philip Dunne | 444 c296WH (Link to this contribution) : Indeed. There is a paper trail going wrong in every direction. One office cannot speak to the othe...

Lord Benyon | 444 c296WH (Link to this contribution) I, too, have a declarable interest as a receiver of payments. Does not my hon. Friend agree that the...

Philip Dunne | 444 c296WH (Link to this contribution) : My hon. Friend makes a good point. There is a clear difficulty in bringing in large numbers of con...

Subjects

Administration

Agriculture

Administrative delays

Farmers

Payments

Subsidies

Rural Payments Agency

Common agricultural policy

Link

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