The U.K. government has responded to a devastating report by MPs on the failure of an IT project to implement a new payments plan for farmers by saying it is “confident” a new management team can deliver.
The report from the Commons environment, food and rural affairs committee called for the cabinet minister and top civil servants in charge of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to resign or be sacked, following the debacle.
The Rural Payments Agency’s failed IT project to implement the Single Payments Scheme — which consolidates 11 separate E.U. subsidies — left farmers out of pocket by a total of up to
