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Single Farm Payments Must Remain Top Priority
14/02/06

NFU Scotland has said that the Scottish Executive must continue make the payment of the Single Farm Payment (SFP) to those farmers still waiting to receive it their top priority.

Approximately 90 per cent of farmers within Scotland have already received their first SFP payment but there remain around 2,000 people yet to receive any payment. There are a number of reasons why some payments have taken longer to process than others, for example if payment is in Euros rather than Sterling or if there is a query over set-aside.

If the payment is not issued by 15 February then those farmers still waiting for their payment will have to wait until at least the 22 February for it to be issued. The reason for this is that the Scottish Executive system that makes payments is to be upgraded which effects all Scottish Executive Departments. This will mean that no payments will be made by SEERAD during the period of the upgrade. The upgrade takes place between 16 to 21 February.

John Kinnaird, NFUS President, said:

"We would have expected everybody to have been paid by now and, in cases when, through no fault of their own, farmers are facing further delays to their payments on top of the ones they have already experienced, it is simply rubbing salt into the wound.

"This computer system upgrading should not have taken place until all payments had been made. Any further delay in payments only exacerbates the frustration felt by those who now have to wait through this computer upgrading, not to mention having consequences in terms of cash flow.

"Once the upgraded system is up and running again on 22 February it is essential that the Executive pull out all the stops to ensure that no more delays occur and that all remaining farmers get paid as a matter of urgency."

Single Farm Payment Relief
At Last! Full Farm Payments Promise By RPA
Full CAP payments to farmers will begin in February