The Scottish Government has launched a new website to administer payments to farmers and crofters.
Rural Payments and Services will replace Rural Payments Online and act as the platform for distributing nearly £4billion in Common Agricultural Policy (Cap) support over the next five years.
“The new Cap, which was implemented on January 1, is radically different to the previous policy so we needed a new online system,” said farm minister Richard Lochhead.
“Rural Payments and Services has been specifically designed to make submitting an application or claim much clearer, simpler and smarter, and I am pleased to say the system is now live and farmers and crofters are invited to register.”
He said farmers and crofters would soon receive letters explaining how to register for and use the online system.
“By having application and claim forms, guidance and up-to-date map and boundary information all in one place, the streamlined and secure Rural Payments and Services should save our hard-working farmers and crofters time, hassle and paperwork,” added Mr Lochhead.
He said any farmers and crofters without computer or internet access, would be given online access at local department offices.
The new payments system, which will be phased in over a two-year period, will hold a database of correspondence between government and producers, as well as up-to-date maps to help farmers see their land parcel information.
Creation of the new online system and a rejig of services to implement Cap reform, known as the five-year Futures Programme, will cost the government nearly £140million.
A report released in October estimated that the programme would cost nearly £9.5million more than first budgeted, at £137.3million.
The report, by the auditor general for Scotland, said implementation of Cap had proved “significantly more complex and challenging than anticipated”.
It said that allow the government had taken steps to make sure everything was on track, the Futures Programme would “not deliver the full scope and all of the benefits originally planned and will come at an increased cost”.