“… In Defra’s case, the National Audit Office found that £65.8m of penalties were imposed by the European Commission over failure to properly administer Common Agricultural Policy payments. Of these penalties, most (£38.6m) related to the Single Payment Scheme, with £13.3m from Rural Development, £9.9m in cross compliance penalties and £4.0m from other schemes.
One particular problem the department has is ensuring the details submitted by farmers are kept up-to-date. Where there is a mismatch in information, Defra withholds a proportion of the payment. More than £25m in outstanding payments is estimated to be owing.
Auditor general Amyas Morse said: “The department continues to struggle with managing the complex CAP scheme in a way that ensures accurate, timely payments to farmers. As a result, it has incurred EU penalties of £65.8m related to the CAP scheme in 2015-16, and estimates that it owes 13,000 farmers a total of at least £25.3m.
“Exit from the European Union will not, in the short term, reduce these penalties. The department therefore needs to ensure its strategy for tackling these challenges is effective.”
A Defra spokeswoman said: “We are taking action to tackle the causes of disallowance and are making a significant investment in our mapping data. This will be used to better administer CAP payments.”
http://www.publicfinance.co.uk/news/2016/07/defra-and-mod-accounts-qualified
With new agriculture Minister Mrs Leadstrom on record as having said that UK farmers should not be relying on EU payments, Farmer Parish may be in for a bit of a tough time as piggy-in-the-middle.
East Devon Watch 