To ask Her Majesty's Government following the report of the National Audit Office saying that £620 million spent by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Rural Payments Agency in administering European Union support to farmers was a “masterclass in mis-administration”, what steps will they take to penalise those responsible and to prevent a recurrence. [HL5851]

The issues raised in the NAO report reflect the legacies of the problems faced by the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) in implementing the single payment scheme (SPS) in 2005. Ministers have apologised to the House for those past issues. Subsequent improvement in RPA's performance has been evidenced by the significant speeding up of SPS payments to farmers. The successful negotiation and implementation of the new EU scheme rules arising from the CAP health check last year also signifies an increased capacity to manage change. But, as highlighted in the NAO report, costs are still too high and work to recover overpayments has been proved more difficult than anticipated. Those are some of the drivers for the current review of the RPA that the department announced in September which will seek to identify where the agency may be able to make further improvements and efficiencies in its activities.