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The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) (previously the Intervention Board) is an executive agency of the British Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). The RPA delivers payments to farmers and traders in excess of £2 billion. In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, RPA operates on behalf of the devolved administrations through agency agreements
Part of the role of this department is to issue holding numbers and vendor numbers to landowners in England who wish to take advantage of the various schemes DEFRA offers.
The Rural Land Registry is also a part of the RPA, and this department sends land maps to landowners in the United Kingdom.
The RPA is now responsible for administering and distributing the Single Payment Scheme to farmers in England.
Branches
There are six main RPA branches in the United Kingdom. They are located in:
Criticism
The House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee published on 18 January 2006 a highly critical interim report[1] into the agency's IT systems and activity.
On 15 March 2006 the Chief Executive Johnson McNeil was sacked when a deadline of 14 February for calculating Single Payment Scheme entitlements was missed.[1]
The payments are overdue [2], and farmers complain they are being taxed on money they haven't received and incurring interest costs and emergency loan charges, at a time when ex-farm prices are low.
Further, on 12 June 2006 the RPA confirmed[3] that an internal inquiry was under way into "outrageous behaviour" in the agency office in Newcastle.
References
External links
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