Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Scots farming leader pledges support for government payments system

Brian Pack
Brian Pack

A leading figure in Scottish agriculture has urged farmers and crofters to stick with the government’s online rural payments system.

Brian Pack, a former chief executive of ANM Group who published a report into cutting red tape in agriculture for government last year, says Scottish agriculture cannot risk losing the online system.

The newly launched Rural Payments and Services online system has been repeatedly criticised by industry in the past few weeks.

Its equivalent down south has since been ditched by the Rural Payments Agency and English farmers are being forced to submit paper Single Application Forms (SAFs) this year.

Mr Pack has now urged farmers to be patient with the Scottish system.

“The prize of a common IT system is so great that we can’t risk losing it,” said Mr Pack.

“It’s at this stage that constructive dialogue and a shared vision of the future is essential. A blame culture will never deliver the prizes originally envisaged for the system and that is where the energy should be directed. We should be very appreciative of the Scottish Government’s commitment to deliver such an ambitious application that will provide real benefits.”

There was potential to expand the system in future to enable data sharing across the industry to achieve efficiencies for both farmers and regulators, added Mr Pack.

“The whole IT system promises a step change in customer care but is at a critical stage,” he said.

“It will take a lot of energy and goodwill from all parties to deliver the prize of a fully interactive online system to manage Cap applications and conformity. Failure is not an option.”

All farmers and crofters are required to register their businesses with the system, regardless of whether they submit their SAF online, in order to receive payments. This must be done by May 15.