On Tuesday, the Rural Payments Agency opened registration for farmers and landowners wishing to claim payments under the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

More than a quarter of eligible farm businesses in England have registered on the new online Rural Payments service for Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) 2015, RPA said on Tuesday.

The Agency said that, up until now, its online service has been introduced gradually to customers, starting with small groups at a time, making sure that it works well for customers. Over the past month, there was an increase in numbers being invited to get online, leading to yesterday’s announcement recommending all customers to get online now.

However, in a report also released on Tuesday, the EFRA select committee was highly critical of the government’s efforts to get rural Britain online. The select committee of MPs warned that the drive to deliver subsidised superfast broadband to 95 percent of the population risked leaving farmers and rural residents in the hardest to reach places even further behind, especially given the government’s desire to make many of its services ‘digital by default.’

The scheme, led by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and backed by Defra, has been repeatedly delayed and widely criticised over the past four years.

Even so, RPA’s latest figures show that by Monday (2nd February) nearly 21,000 customers and agents had registered on its digital service, representing more than 22,500 farm businesses. The overwhelming majority of these had confirmed their business details and issued the correct permissions for others to act on their behalf.

RPA Design Director Emma Appleby said, “The new Rural Payments online service is the only way to claim your money this year so you need to make sure you register. This applies to everyone who wants to make a claim, even those previously registered for the former Single Payment Scheme (SPS), and we urge you to do it as soon as possible to give yourself time to complete it.

“The new digital Rural Payments service will make managing a claim simple and effective without the need to fill in paper forms. Farmers and landowners will be able to manage their land using interactive maps, give others permission to act on their behalf and apply for CAP schemes. There is a lot to do this year, but Rural Payments will mean that making a claim in subsequent years is really straight forward.

“We know that some people will need help applying online and we have put in place a range of ways to help them including by telephone, through local farming and specialist IT organisations and, for those who need it, 50 support centres throughout the country.”

There are just 100 days left in which claimants can register for the Basic Payment Scheme. The RPA has set up 50 support centres across England where farmers can get one to one face to face help, but to access them claimants must call RPA first.

To find out what options may be available to them, farmers are urged to visit www.gov.uk/ruralpayments or call 03000 200 301 (the rural payments helpline) to find out more.