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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to (a) expedite payments and (b) improve the payment structure of the Rural Payments Agency.

The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) understands the importance of cashflow for farmers and rural businesses and has in recent years made more payments for the schemes they administer, earlier in the payment window. The agency has also taken steps to improve the flow of payments. This includes making Delinked payments from August in 2024, compared to historically Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) payments from December, earlier partial payments on Countryside Stewardship, and moving to a quarterly payments structure for the Sustainable Farming Incentive. Schemes will continue to be administered with payment frequency in mind.