Senior members of farm unions in England wand Wales have written to the Rural Payments Agency (RPA), asking England’s farm payment body to share information with its Welsh equivalent, to avoid delays to farm payments seen last year.

NFU Cymru President Stephen James and NFU Vice President Guy Smith have written to Mark Grimshaw, the Chief Executive of the RPA in England, urging him to share data with Rural Payments Wales (RPW).

The demand comes after more farmers with land straddling the border between England and Wales are facing delays to their Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) payments. RPW has informed farmers that the agency won’t receive the data it needs from RPA until January.  

In its latest announcement on payments, issued last week, RPA said a range of claim sizes and farm types had received payments - including farm types that suffered from delays last year, like farmers with claims for common land - and that the Agency is still on course to meet its target of making 90% of payments by the end of the month. However, before the payment window opened at the beginning of December, RPA acknowledged that claims with a greater degree of processing complexity (like cross border claims) were still likely to take longer to process and pay.

The farm unions have expressed concern at this state of affairs, and the NFU has asked the Defra secretary to increase transparency on the issue, and introduce bridging payments for farmers whose claims will be delayed.

In their letter, sent this week, the farm union executives both stress that the current state of affairs is extremely disappointing and worrying for farmers, as some have reportedly not yet been contacted about delays.

Mr James said, “Our members continue to deal with cash flow difficulties and this is highlighted by the recent release of farm income figures in Wales and England, which show three consecutive years of falling income. Last April we met with the RPA when we were assured that they would work to improve their sharing of data with RPW in time for the 2016 BPS application year. The evidence to date suggests that these assurances have not come to fruition for the delivery of the 2016 BPS.”

The NFU Cymru president added, “Many hundreds of farmers are being unfairly penalised just because their land happens to straddle the border. We are seeking urgent assurances from RPA that the issue of validating and sharing data for cross border holdings is being addressed and we want a clear timeline as to when our cross border members can expect payment. This information is vital to help with cash flow and farm business planning.

“We commend Welsh Government for delivering around 93% of BPS payments to Welsh farmers so far, we look for the remaining payments to be made without undue delay. Unfortunately it appears a significant proportion of these are being held up from a lack of the required data from RPA.”

The latest payment figures from England suggest that 68,200 farmers (or 79% of eligible claimants) have received their share of £1.14bn (or 67% of the total BPS fund).

Commenting on RPA’s progress in relation to its targets on Wednesday, Guy Smith said, “It looks like the RPA are taking their race towards '90% by Dec 31st' to the wire but I'm still backing them to do it.”

There are two more payment days before the end of the month: 22nd and 29th December.

Even so, Smith said, ”We are still asking DEFRA to pay a bridging payment to those 10% unpaid who cannot be guaranteed of a payment in January. We are particularly mindful here of farmers in the uplands with commons - winter can be tough enough for these farmers without being told they are at the back of the BPS queue again.”

He said the union will begin surveying its members in the new year to gain a better picture of the progress and accuracy of payments.

On Thursday, an RPA spokesperson said, “We understand how important BPS payments are to farmers and that’s why we’re working hard to get money into bank accounts. Learning the lessons of last year, we have taken steps to make sure that we are in a position to share data earlier for BPS 2016 and continue to engage with our colleagues in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.”