§ Mrs. BrowningTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what delays there have been in paying applicants under the rural payment schemes; and if she will make a statement. [82516]
§ Alun MichaelThe current position with paying applicants under rural payment schemes is as follows:
Arable Area Payments Scheme 2002
The payment window opened on 16 November 2002 and closes on 31 January 2003. Over 40 per cent, of payments for over £700m have already been dispatched to producers, and the expectation is that most producers should receive their payments significantly before the deadline.
Bovine Schemes
Under European Community legislation the Rural Payments Agency is obliged to cross-check all animals claimed under the various bovine subsidy schemes against the British Cattle Movement Service Cattle Tracing System (CTS).
Cross-checks must be carried out to verify that all scheme rules are met and to ensure payments are only made on those animals that are correctly identified in accordance with the council regulations governing cattle identification.
When the cross-check of data was carried out a large number of discrepancies was identified between the information submitted on claim forms and that recorded on the CTS. The sheer scale of these discrepancies and the time taken to resolve them has resulted in around 19 per cent of unpenalised claims being paid after the statutory deadline of 30 June.
Scheme 1999(£) 2000(£) 2001(£) Arable area payment scheme 1,25,166,282.081 1,24,219,183.53 14,078,743.37 Sheep annual premium scheme 26,212,782.54 24,572,845.27 22,766,345.84 Beef special premium scheme 3,783,700.41 3,356,220.48 3,294,163.28 Extensification payment scheme Scheme commenced 2000 21,245,908.10 1,21,142,670.00 Slaughter premium scheme Scheme commenced 2000 1851,843.59 11,095,057.88 Suckler cow premium scheme 1,22,046,856.13 1,21,573,154.87 1,21,464,574.29 Hill farming allowance HFA applications are made in one year and paid in the spring of the following year. Therefore the figure for 2001 is for applications made in 2000 2,495,519 Hill livestock compensatory allowance 28,866.86 224,581.05 1Figures after modulation 2Figures include agrimonetary compensation