Oral Answers to Questions

Rehman Chishti Excerpts

Thursday 3rd February 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Paice]

To be honest, I am not sure that I can write to my hon. Friend detailing which particular transfers or entitlements are wrong. The problem is the computer system, which is completely inadequate for its purpose. It was commissioned, of course, by the previous Government, and it is not fit for purpose, especially in very complex cases such as Mr Philpot’s, where a large number of transfers of entitlements have had to be brought into play.

[Rehman Chishti (Gillingham and Rainham) (Con)]

14. What progress she has made on improving the performance of the Rural Payments Agency.

[The Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Mr James Paice)]

I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave earlier.

[Rehman Chishti]

Has the Minister considered the merits of outsourcing the agency’s payments process to improve performance and efficiency?

[Mr Paice]

The short answer is yes—which my hon. Friend might be happy to settle for. I should emphasise, however, that that was one of the recommendations in the report that we published last year. We are pursuing it, but we have to ensure that we get the existing stuff working so that we do not interrupt payments even more while we look at the whole process of outsourcing.