Agriculture: Subsidies

Miss McIntosh
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what recent discussions he has had with the European Commission on the effectiveness of controls over payments under the 2005 and 2006 Single Farm Payment schemes.

Jim Fitzpatrick
The Department has, in the normal way, been in regular discussion with the European Commission to follow up audits of the 2005 and 2006 Single Payment Schemes. However, no definitive conclusions have been reached to date and further discussions are expected in due course.