Question reference: S5W-21495
- Asked by: John Scott, MSP for Ayr, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 7 February 2019 Registered interest
-
Current status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 26 February 2019
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what the reason was for incorrect warning letters being issued to farmers taking part in the Beef Efficiency Scheme.
Answer
The incorrect letters were generated due to an administrative error. This resulted in a misinterpretation of the report that had been provided by ScotEID.
Once officials determined the error, a further letter was posted to all recipients of the original letter, explaining the error and apologising for the inconvenience caused. To ensure complete and early coverage, an identical email response was also issued to all customers that had contacted the mailbox.
Officials will work closely with ScotEID to ensure that the content of the reports is being interpreted correctly. We are also in constructive talks with ScotEID to review and simplify the weights reports so that they only show data relevant to the current scheme year. This combined with robust management checks should prevent a repeat of this unfortunate incident.