Penalties for government – no penalties for farmers insists nfu

The Government's application to the EU Commission to be excused financial penalties for missing the single payments deadline of June 30 must not be allowed to reduce the urgency of getting payments out to farmers, the NFU said today.

NFU President, Peter Kendall, said he was prepared to support any move that might limit the damage to the taxpayer caused by the Government's incompetence in delivering the payments. However this must not be at the expense of any further delays or in a way that might jeopardise farmers' legal rights to claim redress.

He said: "I remain very unhappy at the way this process has been handled. Given the implications for British taxpayers, we cannot have any objection to the Government seeking to minimise the penalties that it faces.

"But we will be watching very closely to make sure that there is no loss of urgency in making payments to farmers and we are seeking assurances now from the Government as regards the legal position.

"The Government's eagerness to get itself off the hook on penalties for late payments contrasts strikingly with its reluctance to date to press the case for penalties to be waived on farmers whose 2006 single payment applications are late because of the problems in the Rural Payments Agency.

"We expect to see Defra making that case very strongly from now on, and will continue to press the Commission ourselves for late application penalties to be waived. For the moment, however, the advice to farmers is to do everything possible to get their claims in before the May 15 deadline – if necessary with a covering letter."