PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Agriculture: Subsidies (15 December 2016)

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many Basic Payment Scheme claims made in 2015 are yet to be fully resolved by the Rural Payments Agency; and how many such claims were resolved by that agency in each of the last 12 months.

Asked by:
Rachael Maskell (Labour)

As at the 21 December, in addition to claims which the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) cannot pay due to legal reasons such as probate, there are 6 BPS claims to complete for BPS 2015. The RPA is investigating new queries it has received and is currently reviewing 2,539 of these.

We understand how important BPS payments are to farmers and we’re working hard to get money into bank accounts. We’ve agreed that BPS 2016 payments for certain claimants whose 2015 claims are still being reviewed, such as some types of common land claims, should not be held up. The 2016 payment will be based on the current 2016 claim information we hold.

Answered by:
George Eustice (Conservative)
28 December 2016