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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Gardiner of Kimble on 17 June (HL446), why that answer did not include the information that on 8 June the EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Phil Hogan, announced an extension until 15 October of the payment window for the Rural Payment Agency to make payments to qualifying farmers.

Commissioner Hogan announced his intention to allow applications from Member States for CAP direct payments to be made after the closure of the payment window without incurring the penalties that would otherwise fall on paying agencies for making late payments. Defra and the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) noted this announcement.

Once we have received information from all UK paying agencies concerning the value of payments made by 30 June, we will be in a position to consider whether the UK should submit a request for such penalties to be waived.

The RPA remains focused on getting top up 2015 BPS payments to those that received bridging payments, out as promptly as possible.