§ Baroness Byfordasked Her Majesty's Government:
How many late payments are outstanding from the Rural Payments Agency; and whether they will list the number of late payments or failures to pay per month over the past nine months.[HL2691]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Whitty):The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) is responsible for the payment of IACS and non-IACS scheme. Because of different operational requirements and scheme payment deadlines the information is presented by scheme.
Arable Area Payments
The payment deadline for 2002 scheme year was 31 January 2003.
148WA
Total number of valid claims received Payments made within deadline Payments made outside deadline Payments still outstanding %Late 41,338 40,793 456 89 1.31 Breakdown of payments made outside deadline by month
February: 341 March: 98 April: 17 Non-Food Set-Aside
The payment deadline for 2002 scheme year was 31 March 2003.
Total number of valid clams received Payments made within deadline Payments made outside deadline Payments still outstanding % Late 4,061 3,752 242 (April) 67 7.60 Sheep Annual Premium Scheme
The payment deadline for 2002 scheme year was 31 March 2003.
Total number of valid claims received Payments made within deadline Payments made outside deadline36 (April) Payments still outstanding %Late 27,095 26,992 36(April) 67 0.38 Bovine Schemes
The number of payments for each bovine scheme for the 2001 scheme year which were made after the 30 June 2002 are listed below.
Following regulatory changes the bovine scheme claims were subjected to extensive cross-checking with the cattle tracing-system operated by the BCMS. This produced significant discrepancies which had to be resolved before payment.
2001 Scheme Year Total number of valid claims received Payments Payments made within the deadline. Payments made outside the deadline Payments still outstanding % Late 259,818 151,189 107,817 812 41.8 Breakdown of payments made outside deadline by month
July 2002: 19,732 August 2002: 29,072 September 2002: 14,295 October 2002: 14,426 November 2002: 6,287 December 2002: 5,315 January 2003: 3,367 February 2003: 7,024 March 2003: 4,803 April 2003: 3,496 Dairy Subsidy Schemes
149WA
Total number of valid claims received Payments made within deadline Payments made outside deadline % Late 6,580 6,574 6 0.1 ERDP
ERDP scheme claims are subject to rolling payment deadlines that are calculated from the date an individual claim is received by the Rural Development Service which administers the schemes on behalf of the Rural Payments Agency (RPA). The exception being the hill farm allowance which is administered by RPA and has a target of 95 per cent of payments to be made by the end of March.
The latest performance data relating to 2002 showing the number of ERDP claims for each scheme processed within the published targets are:
Scheme Total number of valid claims received Payments made within deadline Payments made outside deadline % Late Countryside Stewardship Scheme 19,737 14,803 4,934 75 Environmentally Sensitive Areas I-III 7,458 5,295 2,163 71 Environmentally Sensitive Areas IV 3,104 2,949 155 95 Farm Woodland Premium Scheme 7,706 4,007 3,699 52 Organic Farming Scheme 1,489 1,087 402 73 Energy Crops Scheme 12 11 1 89 Processing and Marketing Grant 61 50 11 82 Rural Enterprise Scheme 898 700 198 78 Vocational Training Scheme 223 201 22 90 Hill Farm Allowance 11,098 7,214 3,884 65 Non- IACS Claims
The following table shows the number of payments made within the EU deadline for the non-IACS claims:
Total number of valid claims received Payments within deadline Payments made outside deadline % Late July 90,791 90,775 16 0.02 August 66,511 66,511 None 0 September 60,868 60,866 2 -0 October 82,401 82,394 7 0.01 November 99,201 99,198 3 0 December 121,572 121,568 4 0 January 105,304 105,222 82 0.08 February 85,492 85,492 None 0 March 84,275 84,267 8 0.01 April 68,102 68,109 7 0.01