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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she plans to take to make the certification process for the Basic Payment Scheme more efficient for farmers; and if she will include further accountability bodies who are able to certify active farmer status to improve efficiency of that scheme.

We are considering what changes are required to the administration of the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) next year, taking into account the feedback we have received from farmers and experience from the first year of implementation.