Nicola Sturgeon apologises to farmers over second year of EU subsidy payment shambles

Nicola Sturgeon has been forced to apologise to Scotland’s farmers over more delays to thousands of their EU subsidy payments after keeping them in the dark over her request for an extension to next week’s deadline.

The First Minister told farmers at the Royal Highland Show in Edinburgh that there is "no complacency" by the Scottish Government and there a "100 per cent focus" to ensure 2016 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) payments are made on time.

But the Tories said Fergus Ewing, her Rural Economy Minister, should consider resigning for failing to inform the industry when his officials approached the European Commission on Tuesday asking for a three-and-a-half month extension to the payment deadline.

Andrew McCornick, the NFU Scotland President, told the BBC farmers and crofters should have been “the first to know” and warned “this does nothing to restore trust or rebuild confidence” following a similar shambles last year.

It only emerged on Thursday afternoon that the Scottish Government had asked for the deadline to be pushed back from June 30 to October 15 in the hope of avoiding up to £60 million of fines for late payment.

The First Minister repeatedly dodged questions from Ruth Davidson at midday in the Holyrood chamber about whether a request had been made, only for the commission to confirm it had later that afternoon and it was being considered.

It is the second year running that the catastrophic failure of a £178 million computer system has delayed payments, forcing ministers to set up an emergency loan system to prevent farmers going bankrupt.

The Tories said 6,000 payments were outstanding as of last week, with the Scottish Government processing fewer than 1,000 per week.

But addressing an audience of industry representatives, Ms Sturgeon said: "We have made a clear commitment to do all we can to make the 2016 pillar one payments by the end of next week, the set payment period, although we have discussed the contingency of an extension to that with the European Commission.

"At present we've made more than £249 million of these payments and of course farmers have been given access to loans pending the delivery of their actual payments. We are making significant progress now on payments and on resolving the remaining IT issues in the system.”

She added: "We have already apologised and we do so again today to farmers for the failures that have been experienced in the system and I guarantee that we will continue to give this matter our full focus and attention to ensure that farmers get the service that they deserve."

But the Scottish Conservatives accused Ms Sturgeon and Mr Ewing of treating the Scottish Parliament with "utter contempt" and said they should immediately apologise.

Finlay Carson, a Tory MSP, said: “And by failing to be clear with farming leaders, it's clear that Fergus Ewing has lost the confidence of many people in rural Scotland - and he should be considering his position.

"This episode has been a disgrace and has exposed the SNP for what it is: secretive, out of touch and all at sea. Scotland deserves better."