§ Miss McIntoshTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment her Department has made of the Rural Payments Agency's performance; how many complaints were received against the Rural Payments Agency in(a) 2001 and (b) 2003, broken down by type of complaint; when the full development of the Rural Payments Agency will be completed; and what her assessment is of the ability of the Rural Payments Agency to cope with changes owing to reform of the common agricultural policy. [170008]
§ Alun MichaelMy right hon. Friend the Secretary of State agreed to the creation of the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) on 16 October 2001.
The RPA's second Annual Report and Accounts, which records performance against the agency's key performance targets, as set by the Secretary of State, was published on 18 September 2003.
An Ownership Board chaired by the Permanent Secretary of the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs meets quarterly to monitor the performance of the agency, on behalf of the Secretary of State. In addition, I receive weekly progress reports, as the RPA is part of my ministerial portfolio. I also monitor the response to issues raised by MPs and regularly discuss relevant issues with the agency.
The number of complaints dealt with under the RPA's complaints procedure in 2001 and 2003 are set out in the table. These have been broken down into complaints regarding Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS) and Non-IACS schemes.
Schemes 20011 2003 IACS 3 134 Non-IACS 0 21 Total 3 155 1Figures for calendar years from creation of RPA 16 October 2001. The RPA could not extrapolate the data required to break these figures down to 'type of complaint' without incurring disproportionate costs.
The RPA undertakes regular customer research through a third party to monitor attitudes to its standards of service. The verbatim comments from the 2003 survey indicate that the vast majority of complaints are aimed at the scheme rules and payments rather than at the level of service received.
The primary development of the RPA is through the RPA Change Programme, which now includes the implementation of the changes resulting from CAP 31W reform. It is planned that these changes will be largely completed by December 2005. The RPA are monitoring the on-going development of the Change Programme to ensure that customer satisfaction is maintained. This may mean future changes to the schedule in order to meet quality requirements. Full year benefits from the Change Programme will be delivered in the financial year 2006–07.
I have every confidence in the ability of the RPA to implement the changes owing to reform of the common agricultural policy.