Question reference: S5W-21725
- Asked by: John Scott, MSP for Ayr, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 19 February 2019 Registered interest
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Current status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 26 February 2019
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how much it paid out under the Less Favoured Area Support Scheme (LFASS) in (a) 2014, (b) 2015, (c) 2016 and (d) 2017.
Answer
Please see the following summary of Less Favoured Area Support Scheme (LFASS) payment amounts for each year requested.
Year | LFASS Payments total (£) |
(a)2014 | 65,196,182.98 |
(b)2015 | 64,459,059.97 |
(c)2016 | 49,580,401.38 |
(d)2017 | 76,122,791.28 |
LFASS claims are normally paid the year following the claim, e.g. any 2014 claims will be paid from April 2015 onwards, therefore most of the 2014 claims would have actually been paid in the 2015 calendar year.
The fact that the LFASS payment total for the 2016 calendar year is slightly lower than other years relates to the slower processing of 2015 claims following the introduction of the new Rural Payments & Services IT system.
These delays resulted in a significant proportion of 2015 LFASS claims actually being paid in the 2017 calendar year instead of the intended 2016 calendar year.
Any negative impact as a result of this delay was minimised with the introduction of the National LFASS loans initiative, which began in March 2016.