I’ll get farm payments right – next year, insists minister

SCOTLAND’S Rural Economy Secretary yesterday admitted farmers and crofters have lost confidence in him after he failed to deliver vital EU funds on time – two years in a row.

Fergus Ewing has been forced to repeatedly apologise after ministers did not meet strict deadlines – set by Brussels – to hand out Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) payments.

This year the 95 per cent target should have been met by June 30, but only 90 per cent were paid out, which could mean taxpayers face a £60million fine from the European Commission.

Yesterday, Mr Ewing insisted failure is ‘not an option’ for next year, as he launched an expansion to a loans scheme for payments.

In a statement to MSPs, he refused to make changes to the Scottish Government’s £178million IT system, which has been blamed for late payments, and was criticised for offering ‘too little, too late’.

His commitment to make CAP payments on time next year was also questioned following his focus on extending and altering the loan scheme.

Before he made his statement to parliament, Mr Ewing said: ‘I hope that this approach will be welcomed by stakeholders and that’s why I’m conscious that we, and I

‘It’s an admission of failure by the SNP’

in particular, will be able to rebuild confidence within the farming community... And that can only be gained by hard work and by delivery.’

Earlier this year, hundreds of farmers were forced to wait for payments when the Government failed to deliver on time for a second year running. Mr Ewing said more than 99 per cent of 2016 payments have now been made, and 18,000 loans worth £275million had been handed out.

Scottish Conservative rural affairs spokesman Peter Chapman said: ‘The loans scheme in itself is welcome for farmers but it’s an admission of failure by the SNP Government too.

‘It’s only being introduced because an IT system which cost nearly £200million is still not working properly, three years on.

‘And for the farmers who suffered the consequences of this over the last two years, it’s too little, too late.’

Mr Ewing announced plans to ‘stabilise’ CAP delivery, which includes the new loan scheme for farmers eligible for payments under the 2017 basic payment scheme. He said: ‘The scheme will provide equivalent funding, not at 80 per cent as was the case last year, but at 90 per cent of their estimated entitlement.’

He added: ‘The overwhelming majority of farmers will be able to access almost all of their funding from November.’

Scottish Labour’s rural affairs spokesman Rhoda Grant said his proposals would ‘provide absolutely no assurance to farmers whatsoever’.

She added: ‘This supposed plan is simply a continuance of the incompetence we have seen from the SNP over CAP payments, with some farmers still having not received a penny since 2015.’