Sturgeon rocked by row over farm cash

SNP accused as EU payments scheme collapses into chaos again

NICOLA Sturgeon has been accused of a ‘culture of secrecy’ after it was revealed she went begging to Brussels over a new crisis facing Scotland’s farmers – but refused to tell MSPs.

Thousands of farmers face a delay in payments from the Scottish Government after it suffered more problems in processing EU subsidies in time.

The SNP leader failed to answer questions at Holyrood yesterday on whether the Scottish Government had held discussions with the European Commission about the delays.

But it was later confirmed that officials had contacted the Commission on Tuesday to request a three-and-a-half month extension to the June 30 deadline for processing farm payments.

Last night, Miss Sturgeon faced a backlash over the crisis from farmers’ leaders, opposition politicians and the UK Government amid accusations she had ‘let down’ the industry for a second year in a row.

Around 6,000 farmers have still not had their Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) applications processed by the Scottish Government – with seven days until the deadline. Ministers faced an outcry over a similar crisis last year which left many in the industry on the brink of bankruptcy – and contributed to Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead losing his job.

When pressed repeatedly on whether the Government had asked for the deadline to be extended at First Minister’s Questions yesterday, Miss Sturgeon refused to say.

However, her spokesman confirmed afterwards contact had been made at an ‘officials level’ about extending the deadline.

And the European Commission later confirmed that a request had been made by the Scottish Government for the deadline to be extended to October 15.

Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said: ‘Nicola Sturgeon and [Rural Economy Secretary] Fergus Ewing promised they would fix their broken farm payments system after last year’s debacle.

‘Instead, we now learn the SNP has once again failed to deliver on time – risking another huge fine and further delays for hard-pressed farmers and crofters. Instead of confronting this issue when I raised it with her, the First Minister tried to duck it. This sorry episode only confirms that the culture of secrecy and denial... goes right to the top.’

It has previously been warned that the Government could face up to £60million in EU fines if it fails to process payments in time.

But it is understood around 6,000 payments have still to be processed ahead of the deadline in seven days – and normally only around 900 payments are processed each week. Last year, the deadline was extended to October after problems with the Scottish Government’s new IT system. Scottish Secretary David Mundell said: ‘This is a devolved matter, devolution means responsibility, and it means if you create a mess you also have to sort it out.’

At First Minister’s Questions, Miss Sturgeon told MSPs her government would ‘continue to seek

‘Culture of secrecy goes right to the top’

to deliver’ the subsidy scheme by the deadline of June 30.

But a Commission source said a request was made on Tuesday, adding: ‘This request will be considered. In the meantime, the Commission encourages the Scottish authorities to accelerate the execution of payments before the June 30 deadline.’ Andrew McCornick, president of the National Farmers Union Scotland, said: ‘Farmers and crofters should have been the first to know that again there is to be a delay in payments. This does nothing to restore trust or build confidence.’

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