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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many (a) full-time staff, (b) part-time staff, (c) agency staff and (d) apprentices the Rural Payments Agency employs to process Basic Payment Scheme applications.

The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) uses a flexible resourcing approach, moving people onto different activities according to business need. Whilst the number of people deployed to processing Basic Payment Scheme applications will change depending on the activities being carried out, current numbers (as at 10 July) are as follows: (a) approximately 200 full time RPA employees (b) approximately 100 part time RPA employees (c) approximately 20 agency temps, and (d) approximately 50 apprentices from the cross-government Operational Delivery Profession.