Tougher targets for Rural Payments Agency

The Rural Payments Agency has agreed tougher targets when delivering Single Farm Payments to English farmers.

It comes after the agency beat its targets for last year.

Performance standards announced on Tuesday (12 June) require the agency to have paid 91% of claimants by the end of December 2012.

This should represent 84% of total money due to farmers, says the agency’s 2012-13 business plan.

By the end of March 2013, the plan says 97% of claimants should have received 97% of total money due to farmers.

The agency beat its target of paying 86% of customers 81% of the money by the end of December 2011, achieving rates of 87.8% and 82.5% respectively.

The agency also beat its March 2012 target of paying 95% of claimants 95% of the money due.

Chief executive Mark Grimshaw described the agency’s performance as good despite a challenging environment and more demanding scheme.

“We have had pretty much another year to get our grip on the business and we are setting out a set of targets now that will put us up there with many of our European colleagues.”

A small percentage of farmers will still have to wait for their payments.

Mr Grimshaw outlined number of reasons that meant it was impossible to pay 100% of the money due to all claimants in December.

There would undoubtedly be some probate cases and others where there was historic debt on the account that needed recovering.

There would also be a number of cases subject to inspection.

“Much as 100% might be a nice round number, it is not a a practical target that we can achieve.”

The targets were developed in conjunction with the agency’s oversight board, which is chaired by farm minister Jim Paice.

Mr Grimshaw, who has been the agency’s chief executive since January 2011, said the targets were challenging but he was confident they could be met.

“That confidence comes from having just over 18 months in the hotseat and having put in place a senior executive team of people who have all worked in complex delivery organisations.”

These people were all senior civil servants, said Mr Grimshaw. The agency had also been restructured so it was more performance focused.