Single Farm Payment Scheme Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Baroness Byford
Main Page: Baroness Byford (Conservative - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Baroness Byford's debates with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Single Farm Payment Scheme
Baroness Byford Excerpts(8 years, 4 months ago)
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Lord Gardiner of Kimble
My Lords, I thank the noble Lord. We both hold the dairy industry extremely dear. On that point, one of our highest priorities of all is to ensure that we are now working on the creation of a domestic agricultural policy that will support our farmers and consumers in our country at large.
Baroness Byford (Con)
My Lords, can the Minister cast a bit more light on the reasons for some of these delays? Is he confident that the new IT system is adequate? Over the years, IT system failure has caused delays in many of the payments. I should declare that we have received our farm payment.
Lord Gardiner of Kimble
My Lords, I understand what my noble friend said, and yes, I have looked into this already. The main IT system has worked very well indeed, and in fact, over 80% of the claims were submitted online this year, which is the highest proportion of online claims in any one year. We need to improve on that. A lot of the work this year has been about improving the IT system. We have invested quite a lot; now we need the return.