Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what disallowance penalties her Department has incurred in relation to CAP payments in each year since 2010.

The table below details the disallowance incurred by Defra on a financial year basis and reflects the dates at which disallowance was accrued by the Department following the conclusion of EU audits. The disallowed figures relate to a number of different Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) Schemes over a number of historical scheme years. Audits and Scheme years do not necessarily coincide.

(*) Reflects the sums the European Commission (EC) have ruled cannot be reimbursed (i.e. the amounts they have “disallowed”) and which are therefore a cost to the Exchequer.

The Government challenges proposed disallowance through mediation in the EU and since 2010 reduced the amount of disallowance levied by €285m.