Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs written question – answered at on 22 April 2025.
Perran Moon
Labour, Camborne and Redruth
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to (a) expedite payments and (b) improve the payment structure of the Rural Payments Agency.
Daniel Zeichner
The Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) understands the importance of cashflow for farmers and rural businesses and has in recent years made more payments for the schemes they administer, earlier in the payment window. The agency has also taken steps to improve the flow of payments. This includes making Delinked payments from August in 2024, compared to historically Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) payments from December, earlier partial payments on Countryside Stewardship, and moving to a quarterly payments structure for the Sustainable Farming Incentive. Schemes will continue to be administered with payment frequency in mind.
Yes0 people think so
No0 people think not
Would you like to ask a question like this yourself? Use our Freedom of Information site.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
