Further supplementary memorandum submitted
by Defra (RPA Sub 16a)
Letter from the Chairman of the Committee
to Lord Rooker, Minister of State (Sustainable Farming and Food),
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
THE RURAL
PAYMENTS AGENCY'S
PRESS NOTICE
OF 6 SEPTEMBER
2006
As you know, the EFRA Committee has appointed
a sub-committee which is examining the work of the Rural Payments
Agency in administering the Single Payment Scheme. In my capacity
as chairman of the sub-committee, I am writing to express my concern
about the RPA's press notice of 6 September 2006, which describes
how a new software upgrade has been introduced to adjust up to
19,000 Single Payment Scheme claims and 7,700 claims with horticultural
authorisations, where the original payments on these claims has
been found to be inaccurate. The need to review such a high proportion
of claims is in itself worrying, but I am particularly concerned
by Tony Cooper's admission that the problem that led to this remedial
action being required was identified as far back as February 2006.
It is most surprising that neither Defra nor
the RPA has volunteered this information to the sub-committee's
inquiry into the RPA, given the numerous opportunities available
for them to do so. Since the identification of the problem in
February, we have questioned the Secretary of State, the former
Acting Chief Executive of the RPA, the current and former Defra
Permanent Secretaries, and in none of these meetings was the Committee
informed of this issue. Indeed, when Helen Ghosh gave evidence
on 15 May 2006, she talked candidly about the "very small
number of cases" that may have been overpaid in the context
of partial payments (Q 320), but chose not to disclose the issue
that was identified in February, when the RPA was still attempting
to make full payments to farmers. I would therefore be most grateful
if you could explain to the sub-committee why the Department and
the RPA choose not to tell the Committee about the potential problem
of inaccurate payments prior to last week's announcement. We would
also be grateful for the earliest possible indication of the proportion
of inaccurate payments which will result in recipients being required
to repay some of the money they have received.
Chairman of the Committee
15 September 2006
Letter to the Chairman of the Committee
from Lord Rooker, Minister of State (Sustainable Farming and Food),
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Thank you for your letter of 15 September 2006,
regarding the press notice issued by RPA on a new software update
to enable the adjustment of SPS entitlements and potentially associated
payments.
The press notice was issued to provide the latest
position on SPS payments and to tell the industry of the software
upgrade.
In February RPA recognised it would be necessary
to make adjustments to some entitlements and this would require
a software solution. At the time it appeared to affect a relatively
small number of claims and RPA planned to implement towards the
end of the payment process when the vast majority of claims had
been paid. Time was also needed to specify, build and test the
IT change.
It was well into the summer when it became clear,
with the increasing number of representations from farmers as
well as routine checks by RPA, that the issue was more significant
than originally envisaged. Indeed, it was a review of Horticultural
Authorisations that resulted in some 7,700 claims being added
to the review list during early September, prior to the issue
of the News Release.
I consider that Helen Ghosh's comments to the
Committee on 15 May were related directly to the issue of overpayments
on partial payments, which had just begun, and are not related
to the issue of reviewing and if necessary recalculating entitlements.
I hope this information helps explain the circumstances
behind the announcement and its timing and apologise for any misunderstanding
the News Release may have caused.
Manuscript addition to the letter and initialled
by Lord Rooker:
Whilst our focus has been getting out of our
door to farmers I feel we should have given the Committee more
background as we approached the upgrade.
Lord Rooker
Minister of State for Sustainable Farming and Food
9 October 2006
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