| April 2001 - RPA Change Programme established to rationalise office structure and introduce new IT systems.
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| 16 October 2001 - RPA officially established as an executive agency of Defra, taking over responsibility for the CAP payment functions formerly delivered by the Defra Paying Agency and the Intervention Board.
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| 10 July 2002 - EU Commission publishes its communication on the "Mid-Term Review of the Common Agricultural Policy".
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| 21 January 2003 - EU Commission publishes draft legislative proposals for CAP reform package, under heading "A Long-Term Policy Perspective for Sustainable Agriculture".
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| 31 January 2003 - RPA signs contract with Accenture to deliver IT systems.
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| 26 June 2003 - EU farm ministers adopt fundamental reform of CAP, with subsidies decoupled from production and simplified into a Single Payment Scheme (SPS).
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| 23 January 2004 - Commissioner Franz Fischler writes to all EU farm ministers to warn them of the potential dangers of departing from the Commission's default position of using the historic approach for the SPS.
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| 12 February 2004 - The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Margaret Beckett ,announces Defra's choice of a 'dynamic hybrid' system for the SPS in England.
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| 22 April 2004 - Mrs Beckett announces that England will be divided into three regions (Moorland within the Severely Disadvantage Area (SDA); Outer SDA and all land outside the SDA) rather than two, as previously indicated.
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| May 2004 - Accenture's contract with the RPA is re-negotiated.
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| 17 June 2004 - Andy Lebrecht (Director General for Sustainable Farming, Food and Fisheries) tells Defra Management Board that Ministers expect the RPA to be in a position to make payments as from 1 December 2005.
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| 2 November 2004 - Defra announces that land grazed by horses would become eligible for CAP payments.
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| 1 January 2005 - 2005 single payment scheme year starts. Payment window runs from 1 December 2005 to 30 June 2006.
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| 19 January 2005 - RPA announces that February 2006 is the most probable date for payments to start in England.
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| 21 February 2005 - Mrs Beckett tells NFU Conference she is 'bloody livid' with the situation.
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| 16 May 2005 - Deadline for completed SPS claims sees over 120,000 SPS applications made, compared to 80,000 applicants to previous CAP schemes.
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| 18 May 2005 - Performance targets set for the RPA which envisage payments commencing in February 2006 and 96% of valid claims by value being paid by 31 March 2006. Targets also set for 98.5% accuracy with payments and less than 2% disallowance by the EU as a result of non-compliance.
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| 14 July 2006 - Defra prioritises mapping for SPS claims rather than Environmental Stewardship applications.
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| 22 July 2005 - Cross compliance standards announced, detailing the agricultural and environmental conditions that apply to receipt of SPS payments.
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| 10 October 2005 - Johnston McNeill tells NFU Council that payments are on course to begin in February and most should be complete within three weeks.
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| 12 October 2005 - EU Direct Payments Management Committee permits the option of making partial payments. Defra also secures a derogation from the EU Commission proposals to change the order of deductions from SPS payments, which threatened to delay timetable.
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| 1 December 2005 - 2005 official payment window opens.
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| 4 January 2006 - Lord Bach tells Oxford Farming Conference of his personal interest in ensuring that payment commitments are kept.
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| 11 January 2006 - Lord Bach admits to EFRA Committee that he still does not know if payments starting in February will be full or partial.
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| 24 January 2006 - EFRA Committee publishes interim report on the RPA; Lord Bach suggests that it would cause needless anxiety amongst the faming community.
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| 31 January 2006 - Lord Bach issues statement saying full payments will begin in February with 'the bulk' completed by March.
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| 14 February 2006 - Process of definitively establishing entitlements begins. Soon after, farmers begin receiving letters informing them of entitlements and payments start. Many statements of entitlement are, however, not validated when sent.
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| 28 February 2006 - It emerges that just 2,400 payments have been made. Lord Bach still hoping 'more than half of payments' would be made by 31 March.
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| 8 March 2006 - Joint NFU/CLA letter to RPA demands answers to crisis as it emerges that about two-thirds of entitlements are still unvalidated.
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| 9 March 2006 - Jim Knight (Minister for Rural Affairs, Landscape and Biodiversity) assures the House of Commons that the bulk of payments will be made by the end of March.
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| 14 March 2006 - Mr McNeill tells Mrs Beckett the RPA will not make the bulk of payments by 31 March.
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| 16 March 2006 - Mrs Beckett issues statement announcing that Mr McNeill has been removed from his post and a review of the RPA has been commissioned. Mark Addison becomes acting Chief Executive.
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| 19 April 2006 - Announcement that partial payments are to be deployed as soon as operationally possible, after RPA concedes that it is not confident of making full payments by the end of June. Progress update shows 47,033 claims have been paid, representing 39.55% of total claimants. The value of those payments is £362.23 million, which is 24.15% of the total to be paid out.
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| 2 May 2006 - Announcement that 56,291 customers, representing 47% of the customer population, had been paid a total of £514,702,000 in full payments.
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| 5 May 2006 - David Miliband becomes Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in place of Margaret Beckett, who becomes Foreign Secretary.
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| 10 May 2006 - Announcement that SPS partial payments have been "tested fully, implemented and delivered". By close of play on 8 May, 89,662 customers had been paid £1.28 billion, with 75% of customers having been paid full or partial payments.
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| 15 May 2006 - Tony Cooper becomes Interim Chief Executive of the RPA.
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| 31 May 2006 - Announcement that at close of play on 30 May, 95,674 customers had received a full or partial payment. 80% of the customer base had received a total of £1.33 billion, which equates to 89% of the £1.5 billion fund having been paid out.
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