The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Elizabeth Truss)
The window for payments to farmers in England under the EU CAP Single Payment Scheme (SPS) for 2014 opened on 1 December 2014.
The Rural Payments Agency paid more customers than ever before on the first day and had already, on the first banking day, exceeded the end of December targets for payments.
The agency paid out £1,370,328,624 to 96,669 SPS customers. This equates to 95% of all SPS customers and 91.4% of the total estimated fund value. The target was for 93% of customers and 86% of total estimated fund value to be paid out by 31 December.
Over the last four years the Rural Payments Agency has improved beyond recognition and I am delighted that once again almost all farmers received their CAP funding on the first day of the payment window. I congratulate everyone involved at the agency in achieving another record-breaking performance in the final year of the Single Payment Scheme.
Food and farming is an economic powerhouse of our economy, worth £100 billion and employing one in eight people. I am determined to do everything I can to help this vital industry to thrive.
That is why we are making the new CAP rules as simple and flexible as possible so that farmers can concentrate on continuing to provide-high quality British food.
I will keep the House updated on the agency’s progress against delivery to customers on 2014 payments.