Politicians from across the north and north-east yesterday called for action to prevent further problems with farm subsidy payments.
This follows ongoing problems with a new £178million IT system for farm payments which has resulted in delays, the creation of emergency loan schemes and payment blunders.
Lib Dem MSP for the north-east, Mike Rumbles, said around £200million of farm subsidies was “sitting in the SNP’s petty cash box” as one third of farm businesses had not signed up for the government’s farm subsidy loan scheme.
He accused First Minister Nicola Sturgeon of ignoring his concerns and said “trust in this shambles of government is so low”.
Conservative Shadow Rural Economy Secretary Peter Chapman called on Ms Sturgeon to give farmers a guarantee that next year’s payments would be delivered on time along with information about all payments made.
He said: “The lack of information has proved one of the most confusing and frustrating parts of this whole sorry episode and must be addressed as a matter of urgency.”
Scottish Labour’s rural economy spokesperson and Highlands and Islands MSP, Rhoda Grant, said 2016 would go down in farming history for the “constant failures” of the government’s farm payments IT system.
She said: “Fergus Ewing MSP should make his New Years Resolution to be solving this ongoing saga.”
