To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on what date the EU target of 96.14 per cent. of payments by value under the single payment scheme in England was met in each of the scheme years to date; and when he expects the target to be met for the 2008 scheme year. (241251)

The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) announced on its website that it had exceeded the EU target of 96.154 per cent. of payments, by value, on the following dates:

RPA is not in a position to predict the date when payments made for the 2008 scheme year will exceed the EU target, as this will depend on the associated values of the particular claims as they complete validation and are ready to be paid out.

RPA is committed to meeting its formal targets of making 75 per cent. of payments, by value, by the end of January 2009 and 90 per cent. by value by the end of March 2009.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many claims of under (a) £300 and (b) £500 were made under the single farm payments scheme in England in 2007. (241646)

[holding answer 9 December 2008]: Under the Single Payment Scheme 2007 in England, to date 10,898 payments have been made where the claim value was under £300 and 16,605 payments have been made where the claim value was under £500. It should be noted that these numbers may reduce if payments are subsequently voided.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much his Department spent on inspections to support the work of the Rural Payments Agency in each of the last five years. (242423)

[holding answer 11 December 2008]: The direct costs of the Rural Payment Agency (RPA) Inspectorate for the last five years are as follows:

The Inspectorate also carries out inspections on behalf of other administrative bodies in addition to RPA such as Natural England. These costs include administering, carrying out and reporting on physical inspections but do not include overheads or the costs of administering the results of those inspections.

The costs for 2004-05 onwards include expenditure relating to services provided by agents.

The increase in the 2006-07 costs were as a result of merging Horticultural Marketing Inspectorate into the Inspectorate.

The Environment Agency also undertakes inspections in support of the work of the RPA but does not allocate any specific costs towards such inspections because the majority of visits are undertaken as a matter of course. However the Environment Agency has identified costs of additional reporting and it is estimated that the following is spent per annum:

Animal Health also spent the following amount on inspections to support the work of the RPA:

Animal Health does not hold figures for 2003-04 and 2004-05 because the State Veterinary Service was part of Core DEFRA during that period. 2005-06 was the first year for the State Veterinary Service as an Executive Agency of DEFRA and this was a transition period in respect of data.