Memorandum submitted by HSBC Bank plc
(RPA 02)
Rural Payments Agency: invitation to comment
Further to your letter of the 3rd November
requesting information to support an investigation being undertaken
by David Taylor MP and Roger Williams MP I am please to provide
the following comment.
1. While
we are aware that the RPA is unable to make payments under the
Single Payment Scheme at the start of the payment window we are
not able to comment on the reasons for this, the technical and
IT issues involved or the impact the RPA's own change programme
may have had.
2. We
can confirm that that the delay in making the payments will have
an effect on farmer cash flow patterns. In the expectation that
all eligible farmers will receive their payments by the end of
June 2006 we would expect to provide virtually all our customers
with the necessary additional banking facilities to bridge this
gap.
3. We
would not expect to see any marked change in the levels of bankruptcy
as a result in the delay in making the payments for our own customers.
At worst we would be able to count the number of likely cases
on the fingers of one hand.
4. We
do not have the data necessary to make a precise calculation but
would estimate the delay in making the payments will cost UK farmers
approximately £10 million for every month after December
2005 until the SFP is received. This is based on the interest
value on a total payment of £3 billion.
HSBC
November 2005
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