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Defra pledges to review Cap budgets

George Eustice
George Eustice

Defra has pledged to carry out a review of Common Agricultural Policy (Cap) budget allocations in the next 18 months.

Scots farm leaders have long disputed the distribution of Cap monies within the UK, arguing that around 230million euros (£170million) destined for Scotland had not been delivered.

The money, known as convergence uplift, was allocated to the UK from the EU to bring Scotland’s per hectare subsidy support figure more in line with the European average.

After months of lobbying, NFU Scotland says it has now secured assurances from Defra minister George Eustice that the review will go ahead.

Defra ministers have previously pledged to carry out a review once the new Cap is implemented.

Union president Allan Bowie, who met with Mr Eustice in London this week, said the minister had made it very clear he wanted the review concluded by the end of the year.

He said Mr Eustice had also said he was prepared to work with the union, ahead of a formal consultation, to look at the mechanism to be used to deliver a fair allocation of UK Cap funding.

Mr Bowie said: “We welcome the opportunity to work with his [Mr Eustice’s] officials on how a fair allocation can be delivered and the fact that this work will be started immediately. We expect the minister to say more shortly on the review process.”

The issue of convergence uplift has been a thorny issue between politicians north and south of the border, with Scots farm minister Richard Lochhead writing to Defra secretary Liz Truss about the issue earlier this week.

Mr Lochhead said failure to give Scotland the monies had left farmers and crofters outraged, with producers left “firmly at the bottom of the EU league table in terms of our Pillar 1 euro per hectare rate.

In his letter to Ms Truss, he called for Westminster to set out a timetable for the review “as a matter of urgency”.

When asked when a review would take place, a Defra spokeswoman said: “The government remains committed to undertaking a review in 2016/17 of intra-UK Cap budget allocations.”