To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many single farm payments were made late in each of the last five years. (187565)

The single payment scheme was introduced in 2005. The regulatory payment window for each scheme year commences on 1 December in the year of claim and ends on 30 June in the following year.

For the 2005 scheme year, 25,690 claimants received either a full payment or the balancing sum, following an earlier manual or partial payment, after the payment window had closed. Nine claims are yet to be paid. For the 2006 scheme year, the equivalent figure is 2,533 claimants, with 69 claims yet to be fully processed. These figures exclude cases where top up payments have been made following corrections to entitlements or where other changes have been made to claim values following representations by claimants.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the value was of interest payments made to claimants who received their full Single Payment scheme payment after the regulatory payment window in the (a) 2005 and (b) 2006 scheme years. (188450)

The value of interest payments made to claimants who received their full Single Payment scheme (SPS) payment after the closing of the regulatory payment window are £2.4 million for SPS 2005 and £400,000 for SPS 2006.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the (a) number and (b) value of overpayments made to Single Payment scheme (SPS) claimants was in the (i) 2005 and (ii) 2006 SPS; and what the amount recovered was in each case. (188451)

Overpayments are currently estimated to total some £20.0 million to 10,299 applicants under the 2005 Single Payment scheme (SPS) and £17.6 million to 6,925 applicants under the 2006 SPS.

Some £2.7 million as been recovered thus far.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the (a) number and (b) value of underpayments made to Single Payment Scheme (SPS) claimants was in the (i) 2005 and (ii) 2006 SPS; and what amount is still owed in each case. (188452)

RPA does not keep separate data on cases where a top up payment was required after a single payment scheme claim has been corrected. Nor can such data now be readily identified. RPA does retain data on changes in claim values but there is no automatic relationship between those data and underpayments because manual or partial payments may have been made to the claimant. The latest available data shows that claim values in respect of 2005 were increased by £28.6 million for 12,611 claimants.