§ Mr. LidingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what additional staff resources she has allocated to the Rural Payments Agency this year to handle payments under the beef support schemes. [61568]
§ Mr. Morley[holding answer 13 June 2002]: Rural Payments Agency staff at offices across the country are giving priority to the processing of bovine subsidy claims for payment. Additional staff have been recruited and existing staff are working extra hours and at weekends in order to process claims for payments and to resolve queries as quickly as possible.
In addition, the RPA currently has a large team of short-term staff based at the offices of the British Cattle Movement Service checking queries against the cattle tracing system database.
The total cost of undertaking the additional checks required to make payments will be in the region of £3.8 million, this includes provision for staff working overtime.
§ Mr. LidingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when Ministers were first informed that the Rural Payments Agency would be unable to complete payments for the 2001 beef support schemes by 30 June. [61566]
§ Mr. Morley[holding answer 13 June 2002]: My noble Friend the Under-Secretary was advised on 15 May 2002 of the Rural Payments Agency's inability to complete all payments under the 2001 bovine subsidy schemes by 30 June 2002.
§ Mr. LidingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many beef producers she expects not to have received all due beef support payments by 30 June. [61571]
§ Mr. Morley[holding answer 13 June 2002]: At this stage it is predicted that approximately 38 per cent. of Beef Special Premium (BSPS), 88 per cent. of Suckler Cow Premium (SCPS), 63 per cent. of Extensification Premium (EPS) and 30 per cent. of Slaughter Premium (SPS) claimants may not have been paid in full until after the 30 June deadline. However, producers claiming BSPS, SCPS and the Slaughter Premium Schemes should have already received their advance payments equating to 80 per cent. of the premium due.
§ Mr. LidingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate she has made of the total value of beef support payments due to producers for 2001 which will not have been paid by 30 June. [61570]
§ Mr. Morley[holding answer 13 June 2002]: The current estimate provided by the RPA is that approximately £47 million will remain outstanding at 30 June. This represents 16 per cent. of the total projected 227W bovine scheme payments due to have been completed by that date. This figure includes the unpaid extensification element.
§ Mr. LidingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when the Rural Payments Agency began to cross-check beef supp rt scheme applications against the UK Cattle Tracing System. [61578]
§ Mr. Morley[holding answer 13 June 2002]: The Rural Payments Agency did not come into existence until 16 October 2001. However, before that date, cross-checks had already begun to be undertaken by the Department.
Beef Special Premium Scheme claims were checked against previous animal documentation before the BCMS Cattle Tracing System (CTS) was set up. After the database became operative, these basic identification checks were run against CTS data. On the other hand, checks on the identity of the older female animals which form the basis of Suckler Cow Premium claims were not undertaken against the database until last summer.
More extensive checks on the location of animals during periods of retention required by EU legislation have been introduced more recently and are causing particular difficulty.
§ Mr. LidingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of the cost of overtime payments in the current year to staff at the Rural Payments Agency who are working on payment under the beef compensation schemes. [61567]
§ Mr. Morley[holding answer 13 June 2002]: No differentiation was made in arriving at the projected costs between the use of overtime or of additional temporary staff. Each RPA site is utilising additional staff and overtime on the most suitable basis, taking into account local conditions, particularly the availability of accommodation to house additional staff, and the capacity of permanent staff to work overtime.
§ Mr. LidingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many(a) permanent and (b) temporary staff are employed by the Rural Payments Agency to process payments due to beef producers in respect of the 2001 beef support schemes. [61569]
§ Mr. Morley[holding answer 13 June 2002]: Details of staff numbers currently involved in some form with the processing of bovine subsidy claims for payment are as follows:
Scheme Permanent staff Temporary staff Beef special premium/slaughter 332 152 Premium schemes 177 35 Suckler cow premium scheme 29 2 Extensification payment scheme 0 65 Total 538 254