Government set to ‘fall short’ on subsidy payments deadline

Fergus Ewing confirms extension has been sought from EC

The Scottish Government will again “fall short” on the deadline for making European subsidy payments to farmers, Rural Secretary Fergus Ewing has confirmed.

With payments supposed to be made by tomorrow, he said the forecast was “we will make around 90%” by then.

Mr Ewing also confirmed ministers have applied to the European Commission for an extension to the deadline and are waiting to hear if this will be granted.

It is the second year in a row the Scottish Government has been forced to seek such an extension after the introduction of a new £178 million IT system last year caused delays.

The letter to Europe was sent last Wednesday, with Mr Ewing coming under attack for failing to mention this at a Holyrood debate on the same day.

On Thursday, Nicola Sturgeon refused to confirm if the government had asked for another extension when pressed on the issue at First Minister’s Questions.

Mr Ewing was asked if the First Minister would have been aware of the letter and told MSPs on the Scottish Parliament’s Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee the possibility an extension would be needed had been raised at Cabinet.

He said: “It was something that was in contemplation, it was being considered.”

Mr Ewing said 99.9% of CAP pillar one payments from 2015 had now been made, adding 25 claims were still outstanding.

Speaking about this year’s payments, he said: “Our central forecast is we will make around 90% of payments – in other words we will fall short by a few percentage points.

“We are making a large number of payments each day to achieve that.

“I expect the remaining payments will be made fairly shortly after June 30.

“They will not be made within the deadline but fairly shortly thereafter.

“We expect that virtually all the eligible payments will be made by August 30 in respect of pillar one.”

To help farmers hit by delayed payments, the Scottish Government last year brought in a loan system – with Mr Ewing pledging this would be done again this year if needed,

He said: “A judgment will be made shortly as to whether a further loan scheme is necessary.

“If it is, there shall be a loan scheme for basic payments, as there was last year.”

Our central forecast is we will make around 90% of payments. Eargus Awing