On the back of a record-breaking performance in 2011, the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) promises to do even better this year including an SPS   pledge to pay 91% of claimants and 84% of value by the end of December 2012.

The RPA’s Business Plan 2012/13,  published today (?date), builds on the Agency’s widely acknowledged achievements of last year by setting challenging new indicators for every area of operations including, for example, speed and accuracy of payments, levels of customer satisfaction and financial controls.

 Chief Executive Officer Mark Grimshaw said:

“Thanks to the hard work of our people and the support of our industry partners and Defra, I believe we have now turned a corner on our way to becoming a trusted, efficient and effective organisation.

 “Farmers and food producers rely on RPA support to make their businesses more competitive and, thereby, our rural communities more sustainable.  For their sakes, there will be no let-up in our drive to improve performance for our customers and the tax-payer in 2012/13. “

Headline indicators for 2012/13

•    An average customer satisfaction rate of at least 80% across the year

•    SPS:91% of customers and 84% of value by the end of December 2012;  97% of customers and 97% by value by the end of March 2013

•    Trader scheme payments: 95% within 28 days of receipt; 99% within 60 days of receipt

•    Rural Development for England scheme payments: 98% within 5 working days of request

•    Accurate payments - measured at 98% of the financial value

•    Cattle in Great Britain – record at least 98% of reported births, deaths and movements within seven days of receipt

•    Customer charter commitments on response times and levels of service

•    Maintain a focus on costs

•    SPS Online to account for a third of applications (?for SPS 2012)

The plan also reveals the first detail of what will be achieved in year one (2012/13) of the five year strategy announced in February.  These include specific, measurable strategic improvements aimed at stabilising the Agency in preparation for CAP reform (Strategic Improvement Plan 2012-2015).  The coming months will also see the start of procurement for an IT solution capable of delivering those reforms (Future Options Programme 2012-2017).