Hansard

We certainly welcome yesterday’s announcement of a £200 million funding package, however late in the day it was, but it is vital for lessons to have been learned and for confidence to be fully re-established for next year’s payments. It is troubling that, even today, the cabinet secretary could not give Tavish Scott a straight or definitive answer about when this year’s payments will have been made by.

NFUS president Allan Bowie has said:

“For months, NFU Scotland has been looking for focused thinking and clear leadership from the Scottish government to resolve this farm payments crisis for the benefit of the whole rural economy.”

Our amendment would add text that focuses on next year. We have known for months that the Scottish Government’s IT system was not fit for purpose, so that should not be a shock to anybody. I thank the whistleblowers who came forward. Scotland is a small country, so they took a personal risk in being prepared to tell it like it was.

In a series of answers to freedom of information requests and a host of answers that colleagues across the chamber have had to parliamentary questions, the failures in the system have been laid bare. Worryingly, that has raised more questions than have been answered—about issues such as failures of procurement and the management and development of the system.

It was clear from the evidence to the Rural Affairs, Climate Change and Environment Committee last June that agents, farmers and farming representatives knew that the system was not working. From the start, the Scottish Government failed to get to grips with that fundamental issue. There has been chaos for our rural industries and complacency from the cabinet secretary for months. We have seen that in the repeated reassurances that have come to naught, days or weeks after they were given. That led to the unusual situation of the committee asking for weekly updates, which have laid bare the failure to make the CAP payments. The situation has been a long time in the making.

The impact is uncertainty in our industries, which were already under pressure. In the past 12 months, our farmers have had to endure a perfect storm, with turmoil in the markets, market failures for different products and crops, the flooding experiences and the weather last summer. We do not expect the Scottish Government to fix the short-term weather, but it could have done much more to support our rural communities and to make the industry more resilient for the future. That is why, for the past few weeks, we have been calling for automatic payments to be made. It is why our amendment raises the issue of payments that farmers have had to make to banks for interest incurred specifically as a result of the delays that have occurred, despite the reassurances that the cabinet secretary gave.

Our amendment refers to the dairy industry, which is in crisis. Many farmers are already teetering on the edge. That is not just because of the CAP payments fiasco, although that is a crucial issue for them. Some farmers whom we have spoken to are now asking whether it is worth continuing, which is a desperate state of affairs. Although we welcome the 11th-hour action, it is the hallmark of the Scottish Government to sit on a problem for months and then act at the point of crisis.

We are talking about how we move forward. When I spoke to farmers from the Lothians last night, what came across from every one of them was massive uncertainty. They gave me information about the Royal Scottish Agricultural Benevolent Institution, which is an important rural charity that is dealing with the financial pressures and stress. Many farmers have not been able to get credit from the banks, so they have put all their money on the table. Others have gone into huge debt, with great instability for their businesses for the future. Alternatively, the supply industries—whether that is the seed suppliers, the machinery suppliers or the logistics industries—have taken the hit.

That is not publicly obvious but, when we speak to the rural communities that are affected, we find that the problem is clear and urgent. Our rural communities have been put on hold, and there is worry and anger. We need clear accountability and clear commitments on action for the future.

It is good that an Audit Scotland report is to be produced, but that will come after the May election, so there will not be accountability. That is why our amendment asks the cabinet secretary and his officials to issue a statement on what will happen next. Farmers and crofters will soon be submitting forms for the 2016-17 process. Will those forms be paper forms or electronic forms? No one has any confidence in the system, because of its complexity.

The issue that has not been addressed over the past 12 months is the reality of the situation in rural Scotland, where we do not have broadband connections that can cope with the complexity of the cabinet secretary’s system. We know that the system fell down last year as people submitted their forms. We have not had the beginnings of a reassurance on such basic practical issues. We want a commitment on that and we want accountability before the Parliament dissolves for the elections.

There is an issue with the procurement and management of the systems. The processes must be laid bare. We need to find out what went wrong with the Scottish Government’s IT system. It is not good enough for the cabinet secretary to blame everybody else. The failure of the project is truly scandalous; it has put in jeopardy our farming, our crofting and our rural communities.

We need to move forward for the future. Money is now on the table, but we need to have confidence in the process for 2016-17. Our cabinet secretary must tell us how next year will be different and, to date, he has not even begun to address that.

I move amendment S4M-15844.2, to insert at end:

“and to compensate farmers for interest incurred on loans that have resulted from the Scottish Government’s failure to make payments as planned; expresses concern about the 2016-17 payments and calls on the Scottish Government to issue a statement before the dissolution of the Parliament as to what changes will need to be made to ensure that next year’s payments process will be ready in time; further notes the continuing crisis in the dairy industry, and calls on the Scottish Government to take further action to ensure the survival of the industry across the country.”