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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, for what reasons the Rural Payments Agency was not able to make advance basic payments from 16 October 2015.

The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) remains focused on making full payments from December. The RPA is on track to make full payments on 2015 Basic Payment Scheme claims as soon as possible within the payment window, making the majority of payments in December and the vast majority by the end of January 2016.