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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the reply by Lord Gardiner of Kimble on 20 July (HL Deb, col 640), whether the UK is going to be fined by the EU as a result of making late payments under the Single Farm Payment Scheme.

Under normal rules, if the value of payments made after the 30 June deadline exceeds 5% of the value of payments made before the deadline, then penalties apply. The reductions would be 10% on payments made in July, 25% on payments made in August and 45% for payments made in September.

Commissioner Hogan, however, confirmed his intention to extend the date by which Member States may make CAP direct payments without the usual reductions in the rate of reimbursement from the EU to the Member States concerned.

We are currently assessing the UK position in terms of the value of payments made by 30 June and the expected value of payments to be made before 15 October for each of the four UK paying agencies. Once this assessment has been completed we will be in a position to decide whether the UK needs to submit a request to take up the provisions outlined by the Commission.