§ Mr. DrewTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what discussions she has held with dairy farmers or the 2004 integrated administration and control system form. [168086]
§ Alun MichaelThe 2004 IACS application form was based on the 2003 form and updated to take account of the requirements of new EC legislation. The application form has been developed over time with considerable input from farmers' representatives. As is usual the National Farmers Union and the Country Land and Business Association were copied the proposed drafts of the IACS 2004 literature and their comments noted.
1012WFour new Aids were introduced for 2004 including those for Dairy Premium and the Additional Dairy Payment. In order to meet the printing deadlines the design of the form had to be finalised before the Minister had agreed to the detail regarding the Additional Payment.
The final design was a compromise between simplicity for farmers claiming Dairy Premium/Additional Payment and the need to collect enough information to cover a range of possible options for the Additional Payment criteria without having to ask farmers for further information.