Rural Payments Agency

Part of the debate – in the House of Lords at 2:20 pm on 30 March 2006.

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Photo of Lord Dixon-Smith Lord Dixon-Smith Shadow Minister (the Environment), Environment, Food & Rural Affairs 2:20, 30 March 2006

My Lords, I, too, thank the noble Lord, Lord King of Bridgwater, whose enormous experience of government made him a very appropriate person to open this debate.

When dealing with the government Statement on Tuesday, the Minister appeared somewhat surprised that the opinion of my agricultural acquaintances— I declare my interest for the second time today as a farmer—was rather less complimentary than he appeared to think that it ought to be. I hold up a paper to demonstrate why that is so. The Minister recognises it instantly as the March version of Farming Link from his Department. It came out with a survey requesting information on the quality of the service that it provided a fortnight after it was announced that the payment system was broken down, with the headline:

"Full payments on track for farmers".