§ Mrs. DeanTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what measures she is taking to ensure the timely payment of Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS) cheques. [24071]
§ Mr. MorleyThe Rural Payments Agency has, since 20 August, been affected by industrial action. Several thousand days of processing time have been lost and this is impacting on its ability to process claims as quickly as it would normally do.
Most schemes are affected to some degree but the greatest impact has been on the Arable Area Payment Scheme (AAPS).
AAPS payments under the Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS) are made between 16 November and 31 January following the harvest. For land growing non-food crops the final payment date is 31 March.
The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) is doing everything that it can to ensure that delays in making payments are kept to a minimum. These include:
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- Encouraging overtime working
- Redeploying all RPA staff with relevant experience on to the AAPS
- Back filling staff redeployed with casual/agency staff
- Increasing the number of staff authorising claims
- Using validation reports to determine which claims can best be handled by less experienced staff so that better use is made of those with more experience
- Switching staff periodically from case-work to payment authorisation
- Deploying staff returning from FMD duties.