To ask Her Majesty's Government what financial penalties have been imposed by the European Union authorities on the Rural Payments Agency in respect of their administration of the single farm payment scheme over each of the past five years; and from what source those penalty payments have been funded. [HL6163]

To date, financial penalties of the order of £64 million for late payments and £5 million for a shortfall in cross-compliance inspections have been imposed in respect of the 2005 single payment scheme. Funding for these penalties was drawn from a ring-fenced sum that Defra has agreed with HM Treasury for this purpose.