Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what effect the switch to a paper-based application system for the Basic Payment Scheme has had on (a) claim validation and the verification of claims and (b) the delivery of timely payments from 1 December.

The move to the paper based application approach for the Basic Payment Scheme 2015 has not had an impact on the validation and verification of claims and the Rural Payments Agency remain on track to make the majority of payments in December.