Download or read book HC 1143 - CAP Payments to Farmers written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2015 with total page 4 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On 19 March the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) announced an abrupt change of policy on how farmers must make Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) applications under the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) introduced this year. Reversing the firm stance taken by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the RPA that applications must be made online only: claims are now to be submitted on paper. On 25 March, the Committee took oral evidence from Defra's Secretary of State, the Rt Hon Elizabeth Truss MP, and the RPA Chief Executive, Mark Grimshaw, asking both to explain the reasons for this sudden U turn and to identify its implications for farmers and the public purse. With the dissolution of Parliament imminent, this report sets out our immediate conclusions and identifies a number of questions which must be addressed by Defra and the RPA as a matter of urgency.