29 June 2011

Mark Grimshaw, who became head of the Rural Payments Agency in January, has delivered a damning assessment of his predecessors’ performance and pledged to deliver an improved service, overcoming the challenges he inherited in taking on the post.

Addressing the NFU Council yesterday, Grimshaw, who has already altered the way payments are prioritised, insisted there were reasons to be optimistic about a better delivery of the 2011 Single Payment Scheme. He has initiated a five-year review of the agency and told the council that at the heart of his new approach would be an improved “focus on the customer.”

After years of change at the top of the RPA, Grimshaw was keen to point out that he was there to stay by taking on the role of a permanent Defra director. He said, "I recognise that one of the key failings of the RPA in recent years was the lack of permanency in the leadership. I have appointed a customer director for the main board of the agency - putting the customer at the heart of everything we do starts at the top."

"We have listened to criticism and we are putting things right, we will be making some real improvements over the next few years. There will be no sugar-coating of the tough issues, I will ensure everyone at the RPA delivers."

He went on to explain that increase in online transactions represented a key shift the move towards more accurate and successful claims. More than 31,000 2011 applications were carried out online (twice the amount of the previous year) and over 80% of cattle movements are now reported online via the British Cattle Movement Service (BCMS).

Grimshaw also outlined the change of priorities he had implemented as CEO of the RPA, “At the beginning of the payment window the agency will be focussed on processing the large, difficult cases, putting moves in place so that genuine farmers receive their SPS early."