Agriculture: Subsidies

Tim Farron
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many single farm payment cheques were issued by the Rural Payments Agency for amounts less than (a) £60, (b) £40, (c) £20, (d) £10 and (e) £1 in (i) 2006, (ii) 2007 and (iii) 2009.

Jim Fitzpatrick
The number of single payment scheme (SPS) cheque payments issued by the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) for the bands and scheme years specified in the question are as follows:

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|Band                                                                                                                                |SPS 2006|SPS 2007|SPS 20081|
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|£40.01-£60.00                                                                                                                       |2,417   |807     |299      |
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|£20.01-£40.00                                                                                                                       |1,861   |492     |122      |
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|£10.01-£20.00                                                                                                                       |546     |69      |14       |
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|£1.01-£10.00                                                                                                                        |80      |14      |3        |
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|£0.01-£1.00                                                                                                                         |2       |6       |3        |
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|1A change in EU Regulations meant that RPA stopped making payments by cheque on 15 October 2008. All payments are now made via BACS.|        |        |         |
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Payment for the 2009 SPS scheme year commences on 1 December.