Farm payments announcement met with criticism

The Scottish government has announced that the first of their direct farm payments should begin arriving in bank accounts by the end of December.

The announcement follows repeated calls from Orkney MSP Liam MacArthur and NFU Scotland to provide information on the expected delivery of the new Basic Payment Scheme (BPS).

Mr MacArthur remains critical of the Scottish Government’s announcement, which details that a quarter of claimants in Scotland should see their first payments by the end of the year

In an update to industry representatives, Rural Affairs Secretary Richard Lochhead confirmed the Scottish Government is on course to start making payments by the end of the year.

However Mr MacArthur said yesterday that the Scottish Government had “categorically failed where other EU member states have coped” and that the chosen delivery system has only delayed a vital source of income for Orkney’s farmers.

Following EU reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the Scottish Government has been required to implement a complex new regime at the same time as moving to a system where payments are based on area, rather than historic production.

The first instalment will be worth a minimum of 70 per cent of the total value of Basic Payment Scheme (BPS), Greening and Young Farmer payments. The first payments, to about a quarter of claimants, should start to arrive in bank accounts by the end of the year.

The majority of farmers should receive their initial payment by the end of January, with all first instalments expected to be paid by the end of March. The balance of payments is due be settled in April.

Mr MacArthur said: “For far too long local farmers and crofters have been asking time and again about receiving direct support payments before the end of the year. The Scottish Government has had 18 months and £178 million pounds to get this right, but now Scottish Government Ministers admit only a quarter of Scottish farmers will receive their first instalment by the end of the year.

“Given the difficult year farmers have faced in Orkney this news will not be well received. Indeed, questions must yet be raised as to who will receive a first instalment by the end of the year and on what basis some farmers will have to wait further still.

“I am therefore reiterating earlier calls that the Scottish Parliament’s Rural Affairs Committee must immediately step in and call an emergency meeting to hold Scottish Government Ministers to account.”