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Mr. Philip Dunne (Ludlow) (Con): I shall try to keep my remarks as brief as I can. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Vale of York (Miss McIntosh) on securing this excellent and important debate. I remind the House of my entry in the Register of Members' Interests. I am a partner in a farming business, which, incidentally, received a letter of entitlement indicating that we farm 90 hectares more than we do. As a consequence, we are in the category of the unvalidated-or the great unwashed.
I deeply regret that we are having to have this debate at all. I shall not dwell on the reasons for the chaos in the Rural Payments Agency, because they have been well catalogued by other hon. Members. I should like to touch on the scale of the complexity and the numbers from the perspective of my constituency.
We are told by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs that there are 120,000 farms in England. I think that it means 120,000 holdings, and there is a difference between farms and holdings, which may in part explain the confusion about numbers. I am led to believe that only 68,000 of those farms are more than 20 hectares. Some Labour Members have referred to the fact that farms below that level are, in many cases, hobby farms, although there are some specialist farmers who farm small acreages. It is the larger farmers for whom the payments are so critical to the viability of their business.
There is a business in my constituency, Farming Online, which maintains a database of about 35,000 mostly larger, arable farms. Its director, Peter Griffith, told me when I was preparing for this debate that the survey he has conducted through Farming Online's website indicates that, of 2,210 respondents as of this morning, only 140 have been paid their single farm payments-a mere 6.3 per cent. of respondents. That compares with the Government's statistic, in the Library briefing, that 32.5 per cent. of farmers have been dealt with correctly. There is an enormous discrepancy between those numbers. An even more startling figure is that, of those who replied to the survey, 86 per cent. have received unvalidated entitlement letters.
The chaos in the Rural Payments Agency is apparent to all of us from constituency cases. I shall illustrate a couple that have come to my attention. At a meeting of the National Farmers Union West Midlands last night, DEFRA was considered as much a part of the problem as the RPA. Previously, a farmer could at least rely on being dealt with by one case officer at DEFRA or its predecessor, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, however unhelpful they may have been, but now, papers get shuffled from one office to another-in the case of one of my constituents, from Crewe to Reading to Exeter. No individual case officer is responsible, so no one takes responsibility for a case, and there is no telephone line to follow it up.
Mr. Richard Benyon (Newbury) (Con): I, too, have a declarable interest as a receiver of payments. Does not my hon. Friend agree that the questions that Ministers must face also relate to the fact that there has been a complete lack of common sense? At a time when it is introducing a complex system, the RPA is being forced to close two of its offices, and it is reducing staff numbers, as we have heard from Labour Members, and employing large numbers of temporary staff and contract labour. Does not my hon. Friend agree that Ministers must consider how a system could be brought in when such bizarre employment practices are being carried on?
Mr. Dunne : My hon. Friend makes a good point. There is a clear difficulty in bringing in large numbers of contractors who have not been properly trained to operate systems that do not work properly. Inevitably, there will be chaos.
Tony Baldry : Is not one of the many problems for farmers the fact that they cannot find anyone to talk to? When they get in touch, they are either told to go to the website or sent another form. They find that it adds insult to insult.
Mr. Dunne : Indeed. There is a paper trail going wrong in every direction. One office cannot speak to the other, and it has no idea where the files are. I have a good example. Mr. Howard Fish, a farmer in my constituency, rang the RPA in Newcastle and was informed that it still had outstanding issues with the digital map that he submitted, which he needed to correct. It was suggested that he contact the Reading office, which he duly did, only to be told by Reading that his map was correct. One side does not know what the other is doing.
One of my constituents is so angry with the delay, she is thinking of charging DEFRA interest on the monies due to her. She is prepared to go to court to do so. I hope that the Minister will address that when dealing with the points made by Labour Members.
Tim Farron (Westmorland and Lonsdale) (LD): I am sure that the hon. Gentleman is aware that farmers in less favoured areas are suffering even more than average, not only as a consequence of the nature of their business, but because the majority of them have yet to receive their hill farm allowance, irrespective of the fact that single farm payments have yet to be made. Will he comment on that?
Mr. Dunne : The hon. Gentleman speaks with some authority on that subject, as he is chairman of the all-party group on hill farming, on which I have the pleasure to serve. I completely agree. That issue must be addressed, and I hope that the Minister will pick up on it in his winding-up speech.
Several hon. Members have discussed the fact that this is a critical time for the business viability of farms. Tenant payments and fertiliser payments are due, and hon. Members must remember that the single farm payment relates to the entirety of 2005. For many farmers, their support payments have been pushed back and back, year in, year out. People used to receive their payments in November. Then it was pushed to December, then it became January, then we were told March, and now I am told by somebody who attended the NFU meeting last evening that the talk is of August. At that point, the Government shall incur significant EU penalties. I hope that they do not go down that route.
I should like to touch on the human consequences of this tragedy, because they are not purely financial. Last week, I hosted in this House a meeting of the Rural Stress Network, chaired by the former Bishop of Hereford, in whose diocese my constituency lies. The network covers five rural counties in the west midlands: Shropshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire and Staffordshire. The caseload of that group, which is staffed almost entirely by volunteers, is rising dramatically. Farmers are under particular pressure at this time of year, with lambing and calving as well as land work, and the financial situation is giving rise to severe stress and mental concerns.
The network brought to my attention a particularly tragic case. Less than a month ago, a farmer in north Herefordshire, who lived not far from where I farm, got in touch with the network, because of his increasing distress over the non-arrival of his payments. I am afraid to have to tell the House that he committed suicide at the end of February. A female Rural Payments Agency officer who was in touch with him was, understandably, extremely distressed by the consequences of her discussions with him. If DEFRA cannot offer farmers any apologies or support, will the Minister at least give some assurances that RPA personnel get support for the circumstances with which they have to contend?
I should like to ask the Minister a few quick questions. First, we have already heard that, in Wales, interim payments of 80 per cent. were made on the basis of historic entitlements, and that 94 per cent. of them were paid by 2 March. We learn today that all have now been paid. Will the Minister, as a matter of extreme urgency, now authorise immediate payments to those farmers in England who have had their entitlements validated? Secondly, will he instruct payment of an interim award of 80 per cent. of historical entitlements to the vast majority of farmers whose claims have been returned as unvalidated?
Thirdly, does the Minister recognise that the failure to make those payments for 2005 is having a serious knock-on effect for the whole rural economy, much of which depends on the cash flows generated by farmers? Does he agree that it is appropriate to pay compensation to farmers who have suffered additional substantial interest payments? Finally, when will the appropriate Minister take responsibility for this fiasco?
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