Question reference: S5W-29243
- Asked by: Maureen Watt, MSP for Aberdeen South and North Kincardine, Scottish National Party
- Date lodged: 20 May 2020
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Current status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Fergus Ewing on 21 May 2020
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many 2020 CAP Single Application Forms were submitted by the 15 May 2020 deadline.
Answer
Overall 19,487 Single Application Forms for 2020 CAP payments were received by the 15 May deadline, with many of these applications covering multiple schemes. Despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, submission rates are similar to last year and online applications have increased by 2% with over 18,000 (92%) applications completed online.
Over the SAF window period, RPID staff successfully responded to enquiries from applicants and kept in close contact with key stakeholders, responding quickly to address any emerging issues. For example, Area Offices received and responded to over 2,000 SAF related calls through the answer machine service in the 3 week period to 15 May.
For the seven days prior to the closure of the window an out-of-hours response team was set up to deal with any IT issues and in the final working week, there was an out-of-hours help line for anyone having problems with their online submission. RPID received and responded to 12 calls and 10 emails through this service.
The efforts of RPID staff around the country, most of whom were working from home, are hugely appreciated in enabling Scotland to adhere to the original deadline date. The co-operation of farmers and crofters who heeded our calls and worked with us to submit their applications on time is also hugely appreciated.