Farm support will be top of the agenda when the first post-referendum conversation takes place between Scottish and Westminster farm ministers on Monday.
After failed attempts to have a discussion with Defra farm secretary George Eustice this week, Scotland’s Rural Economy secretary, Fergus Ewing said yesterday he wanted assurances on future farm support to be put in place in order to give farmers confidence and allow them to plan and invest in the future.
Speaking at the Scottish Game Fair at Scone, Mr Ewing said he was looking for the UK Government to bring forward a four or five year plan for the agriculture industry, an aim which he has already discussed with the Scottish farmers union. And he repeatedly emphasised that there was no scope for the Scottish Government to take over the responsibility of supporting the nation’s farmers.
“We can’t take responsibility for things for which we don’t have a budget under the devolved settlement. That would be foolish and undeliverable,” he said.
“The primary responsibility rests with the UK Government. They held the referendum and are responsible for us being in this mess. They must now end the uncertainty over support payments to farmers.”
Mr Ewing went on to update the Government’s position on payments to farmers for applications made in 2015. At the original payment deadline of June 30, more than 17,700 farmers had been paid at least some Cap funds, and 16,200 had been paid in full. A total of almost £310million worth of subsidy payments has now been made.
Mr Ewing said significant progress had been made over the last few weeks, with £90million worth of final payments having been made since June 23 – giving a total of £112million paid out since the end of May. He added that the Scottish Government would shortly provide an update on the timing for payments under the remaining schemes.
He added: “There will be no let up on our efforts as we work hard to process the remaining payments and put the system on a proper footing for 2016 payments. I would like to pay tribute to our staff who have been pulling out all of the stops for many months to make payments as quickly as possible – this progress is testament to their hard work.”
Mr Ewing said that while the government had “broken the back of the problem” his department was now focusing on the delivery of 2016 payments.
He added: “We are giving increasing attention to that, to ensure the normal practice of good performance is resumed.”
However he conceded that there could be a knock-on impact on the farm inspection timetable from the decision to redeploy area staff to focus on the 2015 payments in the last month.
