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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of the accuracy of digital mapping; and if she will make a statement.

The Rural Payments Agency is responsible for administering payments for Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) schemes, using a digital mapping system.

The digital mapping system’s land data is constantly updated through a range of measures such as aerial photography and satellite imagery. The Rural Payments Agency ensures that data is fully refreshed every five years. However, the agency is undertaking a land data improvement project to reduce this to three years by 2017.