§ Mr. Laurence RobertsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will pay interest to farmers who have received their IACS payments late. [39278]
§ Mr. Morley[holding answer 28 February 2002]: EC regulations do not provide for the payment of interest. The extent to which claimants might be entitled to compensation for delays in their payments will be considered in the light of the merits of any representation made.
223W
§ Mr. Laurence RobertsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what percentage of IACS payments due were made before 31 January 2002(a) in Gloucestershire and (b) in England. [39276]
§ Mr. Morley[holding answer 28 February 2002]: 80 per cent. of IACS claims in Gloucestershire and 94 per cent. of IACS claims in England were authorised for payment as at 31 January 2002.
§ Mr. Laurence RobertsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will investigate the time taken for payment of IACS in Gloucestershire; and if she will make a statement. [39277]
§ Mr. Morley[holding answer 28 February 2002]: Claims throughout the country were delayed as a result of the diversion of staff to foot and mouth disease duties and, more significantly, by industrial action by staff in the RPA. Until the industrial action was suspended on 11 January it was not possible to take action to relieve sites which were under the greatest pressure. Gloucester claims are processed at Exeter and, following the suspension, extra teams were drafted in from other RPA sites across the country and significant amounts of overtime were worked. As a result of this recovery action most of the Gloucestershire claims which are able to be paid will have been cleared by the end of February.
§ Mr. Laurence RobertsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the average time taken is for making IACS payments to farmers(a) in the UK and (b) in other EU countries; and if she will make a statement. [39280]
§ Mr. Morley[holding answer 5 March 2002]: The information requested is not collected. However, payments were delayed due to industrial action together with the knock-on effect of staff deployed on foot and mouth disease duties. The Rural Payments Agency as part of their change process are seeking to ensure payments are made as early as possible in the payment window.