Rural Affairs Secretary Richard Lochhead has come under pressure from Scottish Conservatives over delays to payments for Scottish farmers.

Delays, for which the Government’s IT programme has been blamed, have plagued the CAP payment scheme since December. On Thursday, ministers revealed that more than half of Scotland’s farmers are still waiting for their payments.

The Auditor General has been called in to investigate the delays, with NFU Scotland submitting its evidence earlier this week. According to the union, less than a quarter of Scotland’s £400 million budget for the basic scheme had been paid out to recipients by the beginning of the week. Union officials have met with government figures and stakeholders in other industries to discuss how the shortfall in payments is creating a cash flow crisis for rural businesses.

The Auditor General’s report is expected to be published in May. In the previous report on the Futures Programme, the IT programme at the heart of the scandal, the auditor said the Programme is costing significantly more and taking longer to implement than was initially foreseen. NFUS said that the overspend has run into the tens of millions of pounds.

On Thursday, Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said, “Our rural economy is currently being starved of nearly half a billion pounds of funding – because this SNP government couldn’t organise a payments system on time.

“It’s a complete failure of government, it’s damaging people’s livelihoods and the problem is still not fixed – two years after ministers were warned about this. The truth is that if this was affecting urban Scotland or the central belt, the SNP would be all over it. But because it affects rural Scotland and the Borders, it has slipped off the radar.”

The conservative leader said she had been contacted by Jim Walker, a former president of NFUS, who plans to call for the Rural Affairs secretary’s resignation over the issue. At First Minister’s Question Time in Holyrood, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon explained that the government has asked banks to help farmers who are awaiting payment, and has set up hardship funds for those affected.

Commenting on Tuesday, serving NFU Scotland President, Allan Bowie said, “The Futures Programme has failed to deliver on any considered satisfactory measure.   

“Applicant’s experience with their electronic submission of 2015 SAFs was dreadful, which saw deadlines having to be extended, and the eventual delivery of payments has been horrendous. In the past, virtually all farmers would have received support payments by now and this money would be circulating in the wider rural economy.   

“But even now, as we approach March, most people have not been paid and those yet to receive a payment still do not know when it will arrive. With many more payments still due this year (Less Favoured Areas Support Scheme, beef calf payments and ewe hogg payments) the industry has little confidence that the system which has been put in place will deliver.”