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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the time taken between capital grants and investment on the cash flow of farmers.

The rules applied to capital grant schemes by Defra means that payments made on capital works are made only when the works are complete and paid for by the farmer. Farmers can make multiple claims for items of a high value over a period, so farmers do not have to find the money for all of the works at the same time. The Rural Payments Agency endeavour to pay all claims within 30 working days of receipt. Any pause in funding investment by the department does not affect the cash flow of the farmer.