Lesley Griffiths, Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs
This was published under the 2016 to 2021 administration of the Welsh Government
I wish to update members of the number of payments made during the first week of the BPS 2019 payment window.
Over 93.5% of farm businesses have been paid either their full BPS claim or a BPS Support Scheme payment, and over £214m has been paid into the bank accounts of more than 14,600 Welsh farm businesses.
Over the course of 2019, it has been my top priority to prepare for the possibility of a No-Deal Brexit. This meant Rural Payments Wales (RPW) were unable to deliver the same level of BPS day one payments as achieved in previous years. For that reason, I implemented the BPS Support Scheme to provide some certainty and help farm businesses manage cash flows whilst their BPS claims are being processed.
I am also pleased to announce RPW received cross border data from the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) in England to allow the Welsh Government to process full 2019 BPS claims for over 76% of our Welsh cross border farmers.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone, including industry stakeholders, who have worked with my officials throughout the year to enable us to continue to deliver the excellent number of BPS payments to Welsh farm businesses.
My officials are continuing to work with the RPA to obtain the remaining cross border data and are working hard on processing the remaining outstanding BPS 2019 claims as soon as possible. I expect all but the most complex cases to be completed before the payment window closes on 30 June 2020.