Sir Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the reasons are for late payments being made under the Basic Payment Scheme by the Rural Payments Agency; and how many farmers have received late payments to date.

George Eustace, Minister of State for Farming, Food and the Marine Environment: The payment window for the 2015 Basic Payment Scheme runs from 1 December 2015 to 30 June 2016. While in recent years, the RPA has been able to make a higher proportion of payments earlier in the payment window, the new CAP is very complex and has created new administrative burdens for the RPA.

As of 2 March 2016 some 71,700 claimants, representing over 82% of all eligible claims, have received their payments, bringing the total paid to date for the 2015 scheme to £1.13 billion.

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