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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the performance of the Rural Payments Agency over the last three years.

The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) administers over 40 schemes and its responsibilities include running cattle tracing services, carrying out inspections and making Common Agricultural Policy payments worth over £2 billion each year. It reports on performance against agreed targets in its Annual Report and Accounts which are available on the gov.uk website.

The implementation of the Basic Payment Scheme in 2015 posed significant challenges for the RPA in respect of delivering new policy requirements, new processes and new information technology. In 2016 payment performance improved and this was sustained in 2017, along with increased payment accuracy as the work to stabilise previous years’ data progressed. I do however recognise that the overall customer service experience has not been good enough and I would expect the RPA to deliver further improvements during 2018.

The RPA has continued to deliver a strong performance in the other schemes it administers over this period.