Nick Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nick Smith on 2016-04-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, by when will 2015 payments to farmers from the Rural Payments Agency be completed; and when can farmers receiving a 50 per cent bridging payment expect to be paid in full.

George Eustice

As of 2 May, some 79,013 Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) claims have now been completed. This represents 78,102 payments and 911 that resulted in no payments being due. Bridging payments were made by the end of April to those farmers not in receipt of their BPS 2015 claim payment in recognition of the cash flow pressures they are facing.

The Rural Payments Agency will continue to make full payments throughout the remainder of the payment window and anticipates completing this work by the end of June 2016.