RPA Chief Executive Mark Grimshaw has updated delegates at the NFU Council today on the progress being made by the Rural Payments Agency. Mr Grimshaw revealed that 91.5 per cent of eligible claimants had received their single farm payment by Friday (20th January), in accordance with the RPA’s targets, though he said that a number of the agency’s systems were inadequate.

Agriculture minister Jim Paice, who sits on the RPA oversight board, created to improve the agency’s performance, took pride in announcing a record breaking December at the RPA despite the fact that the agency was working to a reduced buget; the agency had paid out £1.514 billion – 87.5 per cent of the estimated fund value –to 95,950 English farmers by Friday. The agency’s performance seems to show that its new strategy of dealing with the largest and most complicated payments first is yielding results.

However, speaking frankly, Mr Grimshaw admitted that underlying problems in the agency persist. He said that the agency is carrying out a five-year review of its remit and systems and that it has revealed some issues which needed to be addressed. The agency is working with some inaccurate data sources, unsuitable and outdated technology and lacks some of the systems and tools to enable it to deliver better customer service, according to Mr Grimshaw. He said these would be addressed in a strategy published later in the year.

Nevertheless, the agency, whose poor performance and IT systems were the source of its initial problems, appears to be on track to improving its service. The RPA chief executive announced that manually calculated payments were being made two months earlier this year for claimants with long-standing, case specific issues which made system calculation and payment before the end of June unlikely. 

He also said better and earlier communications with farmers who remained unpaid at the end of December was another improvement made this year: He told the council, “You have told us that knowing what is happening to a claim is vitally important for those who are waiting for their SPS payment. We said we would improve our communication to these individuals and we have started by doing two things. Our personalised letter, sent several weeks earlier than last year, explained what work was outstanding on each individual’s claim – so far more personal and specific than a standard, system generated letter. And to help with business planning, we gave an indication of the time it typically takes us to finalise similar claims.“

He went on to describe the RPA’s successes, as demonstrated by its performance indicators. “Each of our SPS 2011 indicators either betters or matches performance during any previous scheme year,” Mr Grimshaw said. “We met the first of these indicators two weeks early, in mid-December. By the end of December, RPA had made payments amounting to £1.427 billion –82.5% of the estimated fund value - to 92,066 English farmers – some 87.8% of eligible claimants.  This represented the highest ever proportion of payments made by the Agency in the opening month of the payment window and is an early indication that we can deliver the quality of service that English farmers demand.”

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