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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what alternative proposals on the capping of payments to farmers in England were considered beyond the five per cent reduction for basic payments above £150,000.

We put forward proposals for reductions of direct payments to farmers as part of our wider consultation on CAP reform in October 2013. The consultation included estimates for the amounts which would be transferred annually to Rural Development programmes arising from reductions of 5% and 100% (i.e. capping), further analysis was included in the evidence paper published alongside the consultation. These can both be found at consult.defra.gov.uk/agricultural-policy/cap-consultation. We announced in December that reductions would be applied at 5% on amounts in excess of €150,000; however, we no longer take the view, contained in our response to the consultation, that we have no power to make further or alternative reductions at a higher threshold such as €300,000.