Agriculture: Single Farm Payments

Earl of Selborne Excerpts
Tuesday 20th July 2010

(14 years, 5 months ago)

Lords Chamber
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Lord Henley Portrait Lord Henley
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My Lords, I can confirm the noble Lord’s earlier figures but I cannot confirm what other cuts that agency, or any other agency, may have to face. My noble friend will be aware that all parts of government are facing severe measures to deal with the deficit we inherited from the previous Government.

Earl of Selborne Portrait The Earl of Selborne
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Can my noble confirm that the review to which he referred amounts to a damning indictment of the Rural Payments Agency and that it suggests two options: one is to outsource part of the operations and the other is to outsource all of the operations? Does he agree that the latter option seems the most preferable?

Lord Henley Portrait Lord Henley
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My Lords, we will look at both options. I note that my noble friend used the words “a damning indictment”; I will say only that there are some fairly tough messages for the Rural Payments Agency and leave it at that.