It was the turn of Scottish parliamentarians yesterday to hear of the woes which have afflicted the online filing of Single Application Forms (SAFs).
The deadline is now less two weeks away but nonetheless the members of the rural affairs climate change and environment (Racce) committee, under the chairmanship of Rob Gibson MSP, undertook to compile a list of measures which might help ease the process, including a 24-hour helpline.
The committee took evidence from a number of stakeholders, including farmers, crofters and land agents, with most of the problems they outlined all too familiar to those who have battled through a system that has often been found unfit for purpose.
Rather worryingly, Jenni Douglas, of Duns-based land agents Seed and Co, suggested that page turning speeds were dropping again because of the surge of late applications. “With 50% of applications still to be submitted it is getting slower again after speeding up at the beginning of May. Maps, in particular, are often not uploading,” said Mrs Douglas.
NFU Scotland livestock committee chairman and Aberdeenshire farmer Charlie Adam said: “The problem right from the start has been the complete lack of online guidance. I have always been keen on online submissions but I hardly know where to start when it comes to criticising this one. There has now been an admission that the system’s greening calculations may have been wrong and although farmers think their submission is correct they could be subject to penalty. There is no mechanism apparently for letting people know about this.”
Alison Milne, of Demperston, Auchtermuchty, described the application process as “not intuitive” and expressed fears that simple administrative errors would be treated as harshly as deliberate errors. It was also very difficult to analyse validation errors.
Angus South SNP MSP Graeme Dey asked whether the problems had been made worse because of the way the new Cap had become ever more complex, but was assured by the stakeholders that it was IT issues that were at the heart of the problem. Slow and patchy broadband speeds had not helped.
Castle Douglas land agent Alan Paterson said: “We are all looking to take the online process forward. My firm completed 185 forms last year under the old system but with this one we are losing information all the time. If ongoing Rural Priorities (RP) measures are in place it causes a big problem.”
He also pointed to the lack of a “period of grace” to allow changes to be made after the June 15 deadline, prompting Mike Russell MSP to ask if the absolute priority for Farm Minister Richard Lochhead should not be making sure Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) monies were with farmers in December.
Dumfries farmer and Scottish Beef Association chairman Scott Henderson had started to fill his SAF on April 2 and only finished this week. The delay had been caused by doubts over a carryover of land managers options. “There have been countless errors with areas not adding up correctly, goodness knows what will happen at payment time,” he said.
There were also concerns raised over the confusing treatment of grass lets and the near impossibility of submitting Scottish Rural Development Programme (SRDP) applications by the even earlier deadline of June 12. Mr Gibson undertook to compile a list of helpful measures to put to Mr Lochhead but, with only 11 days to go until the deadline, time is not on his side.