Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, (a) how many and (b) what proportion of Basic Payment Scheme claims made in 2016 to date have been paid.
On 20 December, the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) announced that over 68,200 farmers in England have now received a 2016 Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) payment.
The payments to some 79% of eligible claimants, worth £1.14 billion, include a range of 2016 BPS claim types and sizes, including claimants under the young farmer scheme, those inspected and farmers with common land.