§ Mr. SteenTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will list the schemes making grants to farmers that have met the targets in the Citizens Charter for(a) notification and (b) payment. [111860]
§ Alun MichaelThe Rural Payments Agency (RPA) is responsible for administering CAP payments to farmers in England.
Citizens Charter targets do not apply to the RPA, as its targets are set annually by its Ownership Board and are approved by Ministers.
Performance against target for the RPA in respect of subsidy payments to farmers and replies to correspondence for the financial year 2002–03 is as shown in the table. These figures are provisional pending validation by Audit.
Target Performance To process and pay at least 96.14 per cent. of valid IACS claims by value within the EU deadline. 96.42% To ensure that 92 per cent. of correspondence is answered within 15 working days 92.29%