Rural Payments Agency

Mr. Harper
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what charges the (a) European Union and (b) other organisations have made claims from his Department for delays in payments by the Rural Payments Agency.

Barry Gardiner
Additional costs, in the form of reduced EU funding, may arise in relation to payments under the 2005 direct payment schemes, including the Single Payment Scheme (SPS), which are made after the end of the regulatory payment window on 30 June 2006. However, the European Commission has yet to make any formal proposals in this regard.

The Rural Payments Agency continues to pay interest, subject to a minimum level of £50, on payments under the EU 2005 direct payment schemes which were made after 30 June. A total of 3,384 claimants have received £596,042 to date.

Andrew George
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many complaints have been received by the Rural Payments Agency in 2006.

Barry Gardiner
[holding answer 7 December 2006]: The Rural Payments Agency has received 558 official complaints in 2006 covering all areas of its business.

Andrew George
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many follow up calls have been made by the Rural Payments Agency since 5 June 2006; and how many which were outstanding at that date are still due to be made.

Barry Gardiner
[holding answer 7 December 2006]: The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) has made 5,777 follow up calls since 5 June 2006. There were 338 outstanding call backs at 5 June 2006 which have all been made.

Andrew George
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the (a) shortest and (b) longest processing times were for processing applications for a payment to farmers and agricultural businesses in each year since 2001.

Barry Gardiner
[holding answer 7 December 2006]: Between 2001 and 2004 the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) processed payments to farmers and agricultural business under 11 different farm-based schemes. Payments under these schemes were made within individual payment windows. With effect from January 2005, the Single Payment Scheme (SPS) replaced the 11 legacy schemes and introduced a single payment window.

In each of the years 2001 to 2004, RPA made payments on the first day of at least one payment window. This represents the shortest time for processing an application. The first payment under SPS was made three months into the payment window.

In each year, RPA processed difficult cases affected by issues such as probate or liquidation which will have prevented payment for up to several years.