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Rural Payments Agency

From Wikipedia, in a visual modern way
Rural Payments Agency
Rural Payments Agency.png
Executive agency overview
Formed2001 (2001)
HeadquartersReading, England
Minister responsible
  • Mark Spencer, Minister of State for Agriculture, Fisheries & Food
Executive agency executive
  • Paul Caldwell, CEO
Websitewww.gov.uk/government/organisations/rural-payments-agency

The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) is an executive agency of the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). Prior to Brexit, the RPA delivered the European Union (EU) Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) payments to farmers and traders in England, paying out over £2 billion in subsidies each year.[1] The Agency managing more than 40 schemes, the largest of which the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) paying more than £1.5 billion to around 105,000 claimants a year.[2]

Along with paying subsidies the agency has a number of other roles including managing the British Cattle Movement Service[3] and the Rural Land Register[4] which holds around 2.4 million registered land parcels digitally, and sends land maps to landowners in England.

RPA works closely with Natural England and the Forestry Commission which are responsible for authorising payments under the Rural Development Programme for England for schemes including Environmental Stewardship and the English Woodland Grant Scheme.

Part of the role of the agency is to issue holding numbers and vendor numbers to landowners in England who wish to take advantage of the various schemes Defra offers.

The RPA publishes an annual business plan[5] which sets out its targets and commitments to its customers, Defra and the taxpayer.

Discover more about Rural Payments Agency related topics

Executive agency

Executive agency

An executive agency is a part of a government department that is treated as managerially and budgetarily separate, to carry out some part of the executive functions of the United Kingdom government, Scottish Government, Welsh Government or Northern Ireland Executive. Executive agencies are "machinery of government" devices distinct both from non-ministerial government departments and non-departmental public bodies, each of which enjoy legal and constitutional separation from ministerial control. The model has been applied in several other countries.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for environmental protection, food production and standards, agriculture, fisheries and rural communities in the United Kingdom. Concordats set out agreed frameworks for co operation, between it and the Scottish Government, Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive, which have devolved responsibilities for these matters in their respective nations.

European Union

European Union

The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of 27 member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of 4,233,255.3 km2 (1,634,469.0 sq mi) and an estimated total population of nearly 447 million. The EU has often been described as a sui generis political entity combining the characteristics of both a federation and a confederation.

Common Agricultural Policy

Common Agricultural Policy

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is the agricultural policy of the European Union. It implements a system of agricultural subsidies and other programmes. It was introduced in 1962 and has since then undergone several changes to reduce the EEC budget cost and consider rural development in its aims. It has, however, been criticised on the grounds of its cost and its environmental and humanitarian effects.

British Cattle Movement Service

British Cattle Movement Service

The British Cattle Movement Service (BCMS) is the organisation responsible for maintaining a database of all bovine animals in Great Britain; Northern Ireland has a separate database maintained by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. It was established in the wake of the mad cow disease crisis in the UK, and is part of the Rural Payments Agency. Other member states of the European Union have similar cattle tracing systems.

Rural Land Register

Rural Land Register

The Rural Land Register (RLR) is a database of maps showing the ownership of all agricultural land in the England, along with woodland and marginal land on which grants or subsidies are to be claimed.

Natural England

Natural England

Natural England is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. It is responsible for ensuring that England's natural environment, including its land, flora and fauna, freshwater and marine environments, geology and soils, are protected and improved. It also has a responsibility to help people enjoy, understand and access the natural environment.

Forestry Commission

Forestry Commission

The Forestry Commission is a non-ministerial government department responsible for the management of publicly owned forests and the regulation of both public and private forestry in England.

History

The RPA was created on 16 October 2001 from the amalgamation of the Intervention Board for Agricultural Produce and the Defra Paying Agency[6] as a single paying agency for most Common Agricultural Policy schemes in England and certain schemes throughout the whole of the UK.[1] Most notably the agency is responsible for administering and distributing the Single Payment Scheme to farmers in England. It also enforces the European Union's regulations on the class, quality, size and shape of vegetables and fruit sold, by warning and advising businesses, and occasionally prosecuting under section 14 of the Agriculture and Horticulture Act 1964.[7]

In 2003 the British Cattle Movement Service, which manages the Cattle Tracing System (CTS) for the whole of Great Britain, was amalgamated into the RPA. It maintains a register of births, deaths and movements of cattle to be used for animal health purposes; issues cattle passports; and records where individual cattle are, as well as operating a dedicated helpline.[8] It handles around 20 million transactions per year, the majority recorded online.

Single Payment Scheme

The Rural Payments Agency experienced difficulties in implementing the EU's new Single Payment Scheme in 2005 and in effectively processing payments to farmers. A National Audit Office report published in October 2006,[9] highlighted the key issues.

The House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee published on 18 January 2006 a highly critical interim report[10] into the agency's IT systems and activity.

On 15 March 2006 the Chief Executive Johnson McNeil was sacked when a deadline of 14 February for calculating Single Payment Scheme entitlements was missed.[11][12]

Further, on 12 June 2006 the RPA confirmed[13] that an internal inquiry was under way into "outrageous behaviour" in the agency office in Newcastle.

Following a series of senior management changes during the mid to late 2000s, Mark Grimshaw took over as Chief Executive in January 2011 and established a new Executive leadership team.

The agency published a new Five Year Plan] in February 2012.[14] For the 2011 Single Payment Scheme, RPA recorded its best ever performance, paying more than 95% of the 2011 fund to 96% of claimants by the first week of March 2012.

The agency further continued to improve its performance and in his speech to the Oxford Farming Conference on 3 January 2013, Environment Secretary Owen Paterson,[15] announced RPA had paid out more than £1.4 billion to 97,000 farmers by the end of December 2012. It actually achieved its target for December 2012 on the first banking day of the month.

The Single Payment Scheme was replaced with the Basic Payment Scheme in 2015.[16]

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Single Payment Scheme

Single Payment Scheme

On 26 June 2003, EU farm ministers adopted a fundamental reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and introduced a new Single Payment Scheme for direct subsidy payments to landowners.

Newcastle upon Tyne

Newcastle upon Tyne

Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is also the most populous city of North East England. Newcastle developed around a Roman settlement called Pons Aelius and the settlement later took the name of a castle built in 1080 by William the Conqueror's eldest son, Robert Curthose.

Oxford Farming Conference

Oxford Farming Conference

The Oxford Farming Conference (OFC) is an annual conference for the UK's farmers that takes place in Oxford, United Kingdom, in the first week of January.

Offices

RPA has six main offices which are all located in England. The head office is in Reading, and its other major offices are in Carlisle, Exeter, Newcastle upon Tyne, York and Workington.[1]

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Reading, Berkshire

Reading, Berkshire

Reading is a town and borough in Berkshire, England. Located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the rivers Thames and Kennet. Reading is 40 miles (64 km) east of Swindon, 24 miles (39 km) south of Oxford, 40 miles (64 km) west of London and 16 miles (26 km) north of Basingstoke.

Carlisle

Carlisle

Carlisle is a cathedral city in Cumbria, England. It is governed by a non-metropolitan district named after the city and county town. From April 2023, the city will be the Cumberland District’s administrative centre, named after and covering a similar area to the historic county of the same name.

Exeter

Exeter

Exeter is a cathedral city and the county town of Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately 36 mi (58 km) northeast of Plymouth and 65 mi (105 km) southwest of Bristol.

Newcastle upon Tyne

Newcastle upon Tyne

Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is also the most populous city of North East England. Newcastle developed around a Roman settlement called Pons Aelius and the settlement later took the name of a castle built in 1080 by William the Conqueror's eldest son, Robert Curthose.

York

York

York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a minster, castle, and city walls. It is the largest settlement and the administrative centre of the wider City of York district.

Workington

Workington

Workington is a coastal town and civil parish at the mouth of the River Derwent on the west coast in the Allerdale borough of Cumbria, England. The town was historically in Cumberland. At the 2011 census it had a population of 25,207.

Source: "Rural Payments Agency", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2022, December 16th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_Payments_Agency.

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Further Reading

Common Agricultural Policy

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (United Kingdom)

Common land

Hill farming

Agriculture in the United Kingdom

Executive agency

Badger culling in the United Kingdom
References
  1. ^ a b c "About us". gov.uk. UK Government. Retrieved 30 October 2016.
  2. ^ "BPS 2016 – Detailed guidance". gov.uk. UK Government. 2 February 2016. Retrieved 29 September 2016.
  3. ^ "British Cattle Movement Service". gov.uk. UK Government. Retrieved 30 October 2016.
  4. ^ "Register land with the Rural Land Register". gov.uk. UK Government. 23 September 2016. Retrieved 30 October 2016.
  5. ^ "Rural Payments Agency Business Plan 2014 to 2015". gov.uk. UK Government. 15 July 2014. Retrieved 30 October 2016.
  6. ^ "The Rural Payments Agency - About RPA". Archived from the original on 23 July 2009. Retrieved 1 August 2009.
  7. ^ Rohrer, Finlo (12 November 2008). "Will we eat wonky fruit and veg?". BBC News. Retrieved 12 November 2008.
  8. ^ "BCMS About Us". gov.uk. UK Government. 2 February 2016. Retrieved 29 September 2016.
  9. ^ "The delays in administering the 2005 Single Payment Scheme in England – National Audit Office". Nao.org.uk. 18 October 2006. Retrieved 29 September 2016.
  10. ^ The Committee Office, House of Commons (24 January 2006). "House of Commons – Environment, Food and Rural Affairs – Fifth Report". Parliament of the United Kingdom. Retrieved 29 September 2016.
  11. ^ "Head of countryside Quango sacked". Daelnet. 15 March 2006. Archived from the original on 26 June 2006.
  12. ^ "Tories urge farm minister to quit". BBC. 27 March 2006.
  13. ^ "Downfall of the naked civil servant". Metro. 13 June 2006. p. 16.
  14. ^ "Publications – GOV.UK". Rpa.defra.gov.uk. 20 February 2013. Retrieved 29 September 2016.
  15. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 14 April 2013. Retrieved 18 March 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  16. ^ "Basic Payment Scheme (BPS)". gov.uk. UK Government. 24 February 2015. Retrieved 29 September 2016.
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