Download or read book Rural Payments Agency written by Great Britain. Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs. Rural Payments Agency and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 74 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Rural Payments Agency and the implementation of the Single Payment Scheme written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-03-29 with total page 74 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The EU Single Payment Scheme replaced 11 previous subsidies to farmers based on agricultural production with one payment for land management. The European Commission gave some discretion to Member States over how to implement the scheme, and the Rural Payments Agency (RPA), which is responsible for administering the scheme in England, opted for the dynamic hybrid model which incorporates elements of previous entitlement and new regionalised area payments based on a flat rate per hectare. A NAO report (HCP 1631, session 2005-06, ISBN 9780102943399), published in October 2006, found that the RPA underestimated the risks and complexities involved in implementing the hybrid model, and the IT system was never tested as a whole before the scheme was introduced. It failed to adequately pilot land registration, and underestimated the amount of work involved in both mapping the land and processing each claim, having to rely on often inexperienced temporary and agency staff to clear the backlog. The difficulties were not picked up early enough, neither by the RPA nor Defra, for corrective action to be taken in time, resulting in the RPA's failure to meet its own payment targets. Delayed payments have cost farmers money in additional interest and bank charges, and caused distress to a significant minority of farmers, particularly hill farmers. The cost of implementing the scheme was budgeted at £76 million but rose to £122 million by March 2006, with further cost increases likely. Following on from a previous Committee report on the RPA (HCP 840, session 2005-06, ISBN 9780215027115), published in January 2006 and in light of the NAO findings, this report focuses on aspects of policy decision-making and political accountability raised by the problems with the Single Payment Scheme. The Committee concludes the Scheme has been a catastrophe for some farmers and a serious and embarrassing failure for Defra and the RPA, and Defra's fundamental failure to carry out one of its core tasks (that is to pay farmers their financial entitlements on time) differentiates this issue from the myriad of botched Government IT projects. There is a need for greater expertise within government in the delivery of such complex IT projects, and the report also criticises the quality of advice given by the Office of Government Commerce and the IT system designed by Accenture as the principal IT contractor. Defra determined the policies which it required the RPA to implement and Defra leadership was at fault for accepting RPA statements that implementing the complex hybrid model to deadline was "do-able". The Committee argues that responsibility for this failure goes wider than the dismissal of the RPA chief executive, and ministers and senior Defra officials should also be held to account, particularly Margaret Beckett (the then Defra Secretary of State), Sir Brian Bender, (the former Defra Permanent Secretary) and Andy Lebrecht (the Director General for Sustainable Farming, Food and Fisheries). It concludes that a departmental failure as serious as this should result in the removal from office of those responsible for faulty policy design and implementation, and it recommends that new guidance on Ministerial accountability is needed in the event of such serious departmental failure.

Download or read book Rural Payments Agency Annual Report and Accounts 2011 2012 written by Great Britain. Rural Payments Agency and published by . This book was released on 2012-07-10 with total page 121 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The RPA is an executive agency of Defra

Download or read book Rural Payments Agency Annual Report and Accounts 2013 2014 written by Great Britain. Rural Payments Agency and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 121 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Rural Payments Agency Annual Report and Accounts 2016 2017 written by Rural Payments Agency and published by . This book was released on 2017-07-19 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Print and web pdfs are available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications. The RPA is an executive agency of Defra Web ISBN=9781474143660

Download or read book More cold comfort written by Great Britain: Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2011-11-30 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Parliamentary Ombudsman, Ann Abraham, has upheld complaints from nine farmers about the Government's handling of a subsidy scheme which caused them to miss out on payments they were entitled to. The farmers complained to the Ombudsman about the administration of the Single Payment Scheme (SPS) in 2005 and 2006 by the Rural Payments Agency (RPA), part of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), The SPS is the latest generation of the EU schemes intended, among other policy aims, to give farmers direct income support. The farmers complained about RPA's handling of their claims to the SPS on a number of counts, including that they provided poor quality and sometimes ambiguous guidance on how to make a claim; failed to return applicants' telephone calls when this had been promised; misdirected applicants about the status of their cases; delayed letting applicants know that they would not be paid; and did not explain their decisions properly. RPA also failed to consider the effects their errors and omissions had on the farmers when they came to complain. In one case, a farmer misunderstood the new form and only claimed a subsidy for the year 2005. She did not activate her claim and subsequently did not receive a payment. No one questioned her mistake, even though RPA knew this was a common error by farmers. Losing a payment of over £13,000 left the farmer unable to pay all her bills and reliant on her partner's goodwill. She found out her mistake almost a year after submitting her claim, when she asked what had happened to her payment. Another farmer also misunderstood the new form and guidance and did not activate his claim. He was then led to believe by the RPA that he would be paid, which was not the case. He and his wife found the confusion and uncertainty of their circumstances particularly stressful. The farmer had to increase his overdraft, sell land and take on extra part time work in order to meet the financial shortfall. As a result of the Ombudsman's investigation the farmers will each receive a written apology from the Permanent Secretary of Defra and compensation of £500 for the inconvenience, distress and frustration that they experienced. They will also receive individual payments to put right the financial impact of RPA's failures. In addition, the Ombudsman has also asked RPA to provide an action plan setting out the changes they have made to prevent other farmers experiencing the same problems in future.

Download or read book The Rural Payments Agency and the Implementation of the Single Payment Scheme written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 12 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Rural Payments Agency and the Implementation of the Single Payment Scheme written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Rural Payments Agency Annual Report and Accounts 2014 2015 written by Rural Payments Agency and published by . This book was released on 2015-07-13 with total page 107 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Print and web pdfs are available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications. The RPA is an executive agency of Defra Web ISBN=9781474118385

Download or read book Rural Payments Agency Annual Report and Accounts 2020 2021 written by Great Britain. Rural Payments Agency and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page 115 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Rural Payments Agency Annual Report and Accounts 2015 2016 written by Great Britain. Rural Payments Agency and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 70 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book A progress update in resolving the difficulties in administering the single payment scheme in England written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-12-12 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There was a report in October 2006 (HC 1631 2005-06) which looked at the problems in administering the 2005 single payments scheme in England. This report follows up by examining the progress made in resolving outstanding problems from 2005 and processing 2006 payments. It concludes that the new management team has instilled a clearer sense of direction and virtually all the outstanding 2005 payments were made by the end of December 2006. However the Agency has identified 34,499 cases where there might be errors in the original calculations and the review of most of these cases will be completed by the end of 2007. In the interim errors in payments in the first year were likely to have been repeated in the second year and the Agency was not able to administer the 2006 single payments scheme in a fully cost-effective manner.

Download or read book Rural Payments Agency written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 9 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Government reply to the Committee's 6th report, session 2002-03 (HCP 382, ISBN 0215010086)

Download or read book A second progress update on the administration of the single payment scheme by the Rural Payments Agency written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009-10-15 with total page 35 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Rural Payments Agency and DEFRA have shown scant regard to protecting public money in their administration and management of the EU's Single Payment Scheme in England. The IT system does not meet the scheme's needs, the cost of processing claims has continued to increase and the administration of the scheme is not value for money. Payments to farmers have been made earlier, but the concerns over value for money previously raised by the National Audit Office and the Committee of Public Accounts have not been addressed. Under the 2008 scheme over 96 per cent of farmers were paid by mid May 2009, compared to 80 per cent by the same month for the 2006 scheme. However, the cost of the scheme is high and increasing: the average cost per claim is £1,743, an increase of 22 per cent on the 2005 scheme. (It compares to a cost of £285 per claim under the simpler Scottish system.) The report highlights additional administration costs of £304 million as a result of needing more staff than anticipated, £280 million set aside for disallowance and penalties, and the Agency anticipates that a further £43 million of overpayments will be irrecoverable. IT upgrades and maintenance since 2007, costing £130 million, have resulted in heavy customisation with complex software that is expensive and reliant on contractors to maintain. The cost of correcting earlier mistakes in processing claims has amounted to £119 million and overpayments are likely to be between £55 million and £90 million.

Download or read book Rural Payments Agency Annual Report and Accounts 2021 2022 written by Great Britain. Rural Payments Agency and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Rural Payments Agency and the implementation of the Single Payment Scheme written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-03-29 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Incorporating HCP 840 and HCP 1071, session 2005-06. For main report, see HCP 107-I (ISBN 9780215033383)

Download or read book Rural Payments Agency Annual Report and Accounts 2003 04 written by Rural Payments Agency and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the third annual report of the Rural Payments Agency, an executive agency of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). It is the single paying agency responsible for CAP (Common Agriculture Policy) schemes in England and certain schemes throughout the UK. This report covers the period 2003-04, during which time the merger took place between the Rural Payments Agency and the British Cattle Movement Service (BCMS), CAP reform regulation was published by the EU, the agency was awarded ISO 9001:2000 quality standard for full range of services to the rural community, and the agency met all but one of its key performance targets.