Earlier this week, concerns were raised that hill and sheep farmers would not receive Less Favoured Area Support Scheme (LFASS) totalling £65 million on time.
These payments were due to be made in the first week of March; however farmers have not heard anything from the SNP government on whether this deadline will be met.
But today, during a parliamentary question, Richard Lochhead finally admitted that due to ongoing difficulties with the new Basic Payment Scheme, payments under LFASS would be “delayed for a few weeks.”
The payment crisis started with a £200 million botched IT system which civil servants have been struggling to put right and the blunder has led to less than 50 per cent of farmers receiving payments that they usually receive in December.
With 50 per cent of payments still outstanding it is looks increasing unlikely that the promised CAP payments will not be made before the end of March.
Scottish Conservative rural spokesman Alex Fergusson said:
“This is yet another blow for Scotland’s increasingly hard pressed sheep farmers.
“Not only have they had to extend their bank borrowing because of the Scottish Government’s complete failure to process their basic Payment Scheme applications, they will now have to borrow even more to make up for late payments under LFASS – payments that have always been made in March.
“The Scottish Government has hidden behind the ‘complexity’ of the new Basic Payment Scheme for too long. It has spent £200 million on a hopeless IT system, despite having been warned about the problems it would cause as long ago as 2014.
“Yet, it is Scotland’s farmers that are having to pay the price for Richard Lochhead’s incompetence – and that price will now be even heavier given his admission that LFASS payments won’t be made ‘for weeks’.
“The incompetence of this Scottish Government seems to know no bounds”.