Terry Jones: There is hard work ahead, but the RPA's years of fiasco may be ending

Although the RPA has its clear shortcomings, the NFU has always said there was no "magic bullet" it could fire to make its problems disappear. However, the review published by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs yesterday will go a long way to streamlining the payments process for the thousands of farmers involved.

And this is no small pot of money being talked about but an enormous 2.3bn spend of public money. It needs to be handled correctly, both in terms of the farmers and growers it services and to show taxpayers it provides value for money as part of the Common Agricultural Policy.

The independent review of the RPA has been a long time coming and much of its contents will seem obvious to farmers and growers across the country. I believe the review will go some way to righting many of the agency's wrongs and I am confident that fundamental questions are now being asked about how CAP schemes are delivered on the ground.

What goes without saying, however, is that the RPA's handling of the Single Payment Scheme (SPS) has been farcical at best. It has caused untold stress for hard-working farmers who would much prefer to be doing their jobs producing fresh, quality food, rather than being deluged by reams of paperwork. And the cost of delivery of the SPS in England, when compared to Wales and Scotland, goes no way to reassuring anyone of value for money.

Make no mistake, there is a lot of hard work ahead for the RPA. Its new chief executive will have to select a driven and competent team at the top to drive home the changes highlighted in the review and the NFU, on behalf of its members, will do all it can to work with that team to ensure that the fiascos surrounding mapping and payments are a thing of the past. Not just so that European fines are avoided in the future, but because of the stress caused to farmers by this constant re-working of their claims. We need to see a line drawn under this as soon as possible, but please – let's have no more over-optimistic promises and deadlines that aren't met.

We look forward to seeing the Minister's contribution in action as part of a new, and much needed, oversight board which we hope will help stamp out any problems before they arise.

I really hope that this marks the beginning of getting the RPA to a place where it can hold its head up high as an effective and cost-efficient organisation. Absolutely vital to this is for Defra to take responsibility for the agency and make sure that an action plan is

drawn up and – most importantly – kept to.

THE MINISTER WITH HIS HEAD IN THE LION'S MOUTH

Mark Casci

Agricultural Correspondent

With the highest deficit since World War II, the job of managing a Government department has not been so tough for decades.

However in agreeing to take control of the reform of the Rural Payments Agency, Jim Paice may well have landed himself the most difficult job in Westminster.

The agency remains in disarray. Despite frequent promises of "we're turning the corner" coming from its communications offices and management, payments are still being made wrongly and not on time. Mr Paice's first port of call will be to replace the current management team. With cuts to public services destined to run deeper than ever before, the hot seat at the RPA represents a difficult yet unique opportunity. Get it right here and you can name your next job.

Many of the RPA's problems stem from its woefully inadequate IT systems which, although not fit for purpose, now have a shelf-life, as the Common Agricultural Policy will be revamped in 2013 and render them obsolete. Whoever takes over will need to struggle with these systems for the next three years. A reliance on common sense rather than computers will mean that the road out of the RPA's problems will have to be done the old-fashioned way.

The biggest challenge perhaps though will come in restoring confidence. More than 110,000 people have their SPS claims handled by the RPA. Hardly any of them will have a kind word to say about the agency and its reputation is frankly appalling.

More than anything else the RPA needs leadership. In taking on the revamp of the RPA Mr Paice has put his head in the lion's mouth. In an age when politicians' reputations have never been lower, such leadership is to be commended.

Terry Jones is acting director of communications at the National Farmers' Union.