Farm Payments in Scotland

Delays and uncertainty surrounding the Scottish Government’s IT system to deliver CAP support payments continue.  By the end of December just 3,500 claimants had received part payments, about 17%, and these were the most straightforward claims.  Between the end of December and 20^th January, there appears to have been very little movement.  Rural Affairs Secretary, Richard Lochhead, has confirmed that further runs to ‘thousands’ should now be taking place, with the Government still aiming to make the ‘majority’ of first payments by the end of January.  Mr Lochhead has said he will give a further update by the end of the month.  It does however seem a tall order to pay the majority by the end of January, looking at the current record and time left.

To compound matters, those who have applied to the Agri-Environment Climate Scheme (AECS) in 2015 have yet to receive notice to say whether they have been successful or not.  And the 2016 scheme, due to open  on 11^th January has been delayed.  Only around 700 applications were made to the AECS 2015 and many of these were supposed to have been simple renewals of expired agreements.  However, the new IT system does not appear to have been able to process them; further evidence that the computer system is not effective. 

Whilst farmers are struggling with cashflow problems, the communication from the Scottish Government has been very poor.  More clarity it being called for on when payments are actually likely to arrive.  The lack of information extends to the calculation of the BPS as well.  Although ‘Entitlement Illustrations’ and ‘Payment Notifications’ have been sent, it is not clear how some of the figures have been arrived at.  For example, the Government’s decision to apply a reduction coefficient of 10% to Region 2 and 3 entitlement numbers never seems to have been officially announced anywhere.  The figures for entitlement values are difficult, if not impossible to reconcile, which the claims history.  Whilst the introduction of the complex BPS system chosen in Scotland was always going to be difficult, the administration is compounding the difficulties by failing to provide clarity.