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The Rural Payments Agency says it is working hard to provide BPS payments to farmers as soon as possible.Delayed payments are causing problems to farmers who are working within the confines of the EU regulations. Defra say they are working to process complex payments as quickly as they can.

Leaving the EU will provide Defra with a golden opportunity to develop an agricultural policy that is suited to the needs of UK farmers for the first time in 45 years and they say they are having constructive conversations with farmers on how to shape domestic policy that works in real life.

An RPA spokesperson said:

"By the end of February 95.5% of farmers (more than 81,000) had received their BPS 2017 payments, worth £1.59 billion in total.

"As in every year, there are some claims in the pipeline and some that require more complex processing so take longer to complete. Any farmer that does not receive a payment by the end of March 2018 will be provided a bridging payment in early April".