Rural Payments Agency: Basic Payment Scheme Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Steve McCabe
Main Page: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)Department Debates - View all Steve McCabe's debates with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Rural Payments Agency: Basic Payment Scheme
Steve McCabe Excerpts(9 years, 1 month ago)
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George Eustice
Provided an application is received by the deadline, there is provision in the EU regulations for it to be amended for a period of weeks after that. My hon. Friend’s suggestion of a payment on account while an application has not been received would not fit within the EU regulations, but we have made progress in getting that deadline extended to 15 June, and I have asked the RPA to take a sympathetic view towards farmers who are struggling to get their application in and who may want to amend those details after their form has been submitted.
Steve McCabe (Birmingham, Selly Oak) (Lab)
When the Paymaster General boasted to the public services 2030 conference just 20 days ago that under this Administration the words “Government” and “IT” no longer induce visions of failed IT projects, is it safe to assume that he did not know about this situation?
George Eustice
As I pointed out, we have not abandoned anything. The core of the system is working and will still be used. What we are doing is ensuring that the information provided, in many cases on paper, to the RPA will be entered by digitisers working for the RPA, but it will still go into an electronic system.