Scots government prints paper subsidy forms as backup

More than 20,000 paper subsidy forms have been printed in Scotland in case the new online Rural Payments system crashes, Farmers Weekly has learned.

The Scottish government has put the contingency plan in place amid fears the £138m computer programme will not be able to cope when it opens for applications on Monday (16 March).

NFU Scotland (NFUS) legal and commercial committee chairman Gerald Banks said he had it “on good authority” that single application forms (SAFs) were ready to be posted.

See also: Scots visit English RPA to learn from mistakes

Only three weeks ago, the Scottish government predicted that 15,000 of an estimated 22,000 applications would be made online this year.

“Local area offices are so concerned about a meltdown on Monday they are leaking like mad that a parallel paper system is ready to go. But that’s the very last thing we want,” said Mr Banks.

“We need to be able to download information online and work on it on computers, not return to pens and calculators and the huge potential errors that will throw up.”

Mr Banks, an agent with more than 300 farm clients, said he had penned a 20-point letter outlining serious flaws in the proposed system to Scottish rural affairs secretary Richard Lochhead and his officials on Wednesday 3 March.

“Local area offices are so concerned about a meltdown on Monday they are leaking like mad that a parallel paper system is ready to go.”
Gerald Banks, NFU Scotland

One key concern is that the programme will not allow farmers to save information on to their own files or print out sections they have completed.

The Scottish government declined to comment on whether forms had been printed, but a spokeswoman said “robust contingency arrangements” were in place.

She added: “Our online system has undergone rigorous testing ahead of the SAF window opening next week.”

In England, with exactly 10 weeks to go until the 15 May deadline for applications, three-quarters of an estimated 87,000 eligible farm businesses have now registered for Rural Payments.

However, farmer patience is “wearing thin” with the CAP digital mapping service, the NFU said.

Farmers, landowners and agents building their Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) applications continue to report serious problems with the mapping functionality.

NFU vice-president Guy Smith said: “Members are frustrated that the system has been taken offline without warning, that data processing is woefully slow and field data apparently missing.”

Mr Smith said he had received assurances from Rural Payments Agency (RPA) senior executives that full mapping functions would be available “from this weekend”.

An RPA spokesman said: “We are working hard to make improvements to the service and are addressing some of the problems facing farmers, such as making it easier to map land features and confirm the size of land.

“Members are frustrated that the system has been taken offline without warning, that data processing is woefully slow and field data apparently missing.”
Guy Smith, NFU vice-president

“Guidance to help farmers map their land on Rural Payments is being published this week. Farmers who need help should call the helpline on 03000 200 301.” 

Welsh BPS rates to be revealed

The Welsh government’s revised plans for the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) are likely to be announced this week.

Although two or three options are thought to be included in the consultation document, a flat-rate payment proposal for the whole of Wales is looking increasingly likely.

The payment rates for 2015 are difficult to predict, but if there is a flat-rate payment to all claimants, the Welsh government is looking at an indicative payment of about €176/ha (£129/ha).

The “winners” would be farmers with more than half moorland, where payments would double at the expense of lowland dairy farms, whose payments would be cut by about €50/ha (£35/ha).

The revised consultation follows a successful legal challenge to the scheme initially proposed by the Welsh government. As such, no land regions are included on the 2015 single application form (SAF) to claim BPS in Wales.

Once the consultation document is published, the industry will have time to respond before the Welsh government makes its decision.

Farmers’ Union of Wales president Emyr Jones said complicated SAFs resulting from Wales’ transition to an area-based payment system were taking farmers hours to complete.

“They are taking three times as long to complete compared with the old form,” said Mr Jones. “There is so much detail to fill in, we are feeling quite frustrated about it.”

But despite the complexity of the scheme, the online submission process in Wales seems to be working well. More farmers are using the Rural Payments Wales Online SAF system than paper forms.