Here’s a round-up of what he said about the delivery of BPS and agri-environment payments for 2015, and his thoughts on the 2016 process.
2015 BPS Applications
Mark gave a brief review of the progress with BPS claims processing since June Council. He said it had been a busy few months but added that plans to get claims to payment were still on track. He also said that the core BPS claim system was continuing to work well, with the target still to start making full BPS payments in December, making the “majority” in December and the “vast majority” by the end of January. Mark is still attending weekly meetings with Ministers to explain progress.
Data Capture
Council heard that the plan was to get changes and new information off BP5 forms onto the computerised system to a level of 85-90% by the end of September. Mark said the RPA had achieved this by early October, and the figure today was 93%. This is helping the single annual crosscheck carried out by Natural England to in-turn allow delayed ELS / HLS payments to be made.
Validation and Verification
Mark explained that the next phases of work on BPS claims (which would run concurrently) are validation - checking individual claims and supporting information and carrying out eligibility checks – and verification - checking individual claims against control data and other claims (dual claims on land, for example). As part of this work the RPA is currently processing RLE1 forms for land and entitlement transfers, with progress at 99% and 53% respectively. The plan is to complete this land and entitlement work by the end of October. It is less clear as to when validation and verification will start and be completed.
Hogan Support Package
Mark mentioned the potential for the RPA to make advance / partial BPS payments. But he said that as there was no flexibility in terms of dropping administrative checks and on-spot farm check work, use options within the package were limited. The RPA was also ‘not in the business of repeating mistakes from previous years’ of erroneous part payments leading to an increased cost of processing and disallowance further down the line.
Resources
Mark again said the RPA has the resources it needs.
Transparency
Mark was keen to demonstrate this via regular NFU/RPA dialogue and also a meeting set up after the June NFU Council for a group of members to visit the RPA to view in detail 2015 BPS planning, plus a demonstration of BPS processing system.
Payment Performance
Mark would not go beyond the statement ‘to start making full BPS payments in December, making the majority in December and the vast majority by the end of January’. Until claim validation and verification were worked through, he was not prepared to put numbers against this statement, but later on said he would be going back to the EFRA Committee in November with hard figures that he would stand behind. Mark did clarify that the payment performance statement was based on volume of claimants paid, not value.
Call to Register
Mark urged c2,500 claimants who have not registered via Rural Payments Online System to do so, as that would allow payment to be made when the claim is ready. The RPA will contact this group shortly.
ELS/HLS
Mark thanked the NFU in getting agreement holders to return the first annual claim forms this year. Some 99% were received in time and this has allowed full cross check between ELS/HLS and BPS to begin. Again, referring back to Hogan Support Package, Defra ministers and Natural England had not opted for 85% initial payment as this would have increased risk and delayed getting payments out of the door to agreement holders. The delayed ELS/HLS payments would start to be made in October, with the majority expected to be released in November and December, Mark said.
BPS 2016
The RPA is currently working up options for 2016, but the vision for 2016 is that it is a stepping stone to a full service offering in 2017. 2016 will include an online solution, with a paper claim form option. For 2017 the RPA is looking at a single approach for all users, which is easier and cheaper to run. They are keen to get back to a 70% online application usage as soon as possible.
EU Dairy Fund
The RPA is to pay all monies to dairy producers across the UK and reiterated the public commitment to pay the monies in December.
Council Member Questions
NFU Council’s general feeling was one of continuing concern about the need for timely payments from early December, given the pressures on farm cash flows. There were a number of questions covering the process of inspections; the ability to pay promptly those with common land, complex claims as well as those with inspections, concern of little contact with claimants since forms submitted, the ability of new IT processing software to handle new BPS claims, the timing of ELS/HLS payments and the approach and delay to issuing the dairy fund monies.
The NFU expects that the ‘vast majority of payments made at the end of January’ will mean 95% of all payments by the end of January.