Inspector asleep on the job
A government inspector who was supposed to be assessing farmland for crucial subsidy payments was found asleep on the job in the corner of a Shropshire field, MPs have been told. The inspector was from the Rural Payments Agency. A government inspector who was supposed to be assessing farmland for crucial subsidy payments was found asleep on the job in the corner of a Shropshire field, MPs have been told. The inspector was from the Rural Payments Agency, which has been accused of "incredible incompetence" in dealing with last year's EU subsidies to farmers. Tory MP Owen Paterson raised the incident of the sleeping inspector with Environment Secretary David Miliband in the Commons. He said his constituent, Colin Evans, of Bartie Farm, Dudleston, farmed 580 acres - half in Wales and half in Shropshire - "very efficiently". "The incompetence of what he has been through in not receiving a payment by the end of August is exemplified by the fact that it took two weeks to inspect one of his farms. The process was not accelerated by the inspector going to sleep one day in the corner of one of his fields," said the MP. Read the full story in the Shropshire Star
The inspector was from the Rural Payments Agency, which has been accused of "incredible incompetence" in dealing with last year's EU subsidies to farmers.
Environment Secretary David Miliband admitted in the Commons yesterday that some payments were still outstanding, and some farmers were receiving only interim payments.
And he warned that not all farmers would receive this year's payments by the target date of June 2007.
The Rural Payments Agency's failures led to its chief executive being suspended and put on gardening leave and to thousands of farmers being forced into debt.
Tory MP Owen Paterson raised the incident of the sleeping inspector with Mr Miliband in the Commons.
He said his constituent, Colin Evans, of Bartie Farm, Dudleston, farmed 580 acres - half in Wales and half in Shropshire - "very efficiently".
"The incompetence of what he has been through in not receiving a payment by the end of August is exemplified by the fact that it took two weeks to inspect one of his farms.
"The process was not accelerated by the inspector going to sleep one day in the corner of one of his fields," said the MP.
The North Shropshire MP asked what measures were being taken to ensure competent co-ordination between Welsh and English authorities.
Mr Miliband said Mr Paterson had raised an important point because farms did not always recognise geographical boundaries.
He said he would inquire into how the English and Welsh authorities were co-ordinating their activities.
By London Editor John Hipwood
