Controversial farm payouts agency set to shed jobs

Hundreds of staff could go from the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) over the next two years with bosses refusing to rule out compulsory redundancies within the organisation.

Communications have been sent to all staff, including those working in Yorkshire at its Northallerton offices, seeking volunteers for redundancy with the RPA hopeful that it can achieve the savings it needs without resorting to compulsory cuts.

A reduction of 20 per cent from its work force of 3,000 would mean 600 staff leaving the RPA over the next 24 months and comes as the agency is to be revamped following years of missed and inaccurate payments.

Farming Minister Jim Paice is taking charge of the process, vowing to reform the agency to make it more efficient and cost-effective.

The agency insisted that it would remain committed to ensuring good services for farmers, despite the reduction in personnel.

An RPA spokesperson told the Yorkshire Post: "As part of the Defra network, RPA is working to identify how budget savings will be made and has asked for expressions of interest in a department- wide voluntary redundancy.

"Our headcount at January 2010 was 3,390 and we have set out in RPA's Business Plan for 2010-11 that we aim to reduce this by 20 per cent in the next two years.

"Any staff reductions that do take place will be initially through natural wastage and voluntary departures, with compulsory redundancies only as a last resort as RPA remains fully committed to delivering its three key priorities of high levels of customer service, effectiveness and efficiency."

The RPA's parent department Defra is facing some of the most severe cuts to its budget of all Government departments with around 1bn to be cut from its spending over the next four years.

The agency has endured problems since its foundation, with a series of critical reports highlighting its failure to properly administer the payment of subsidies to farmers in England.

However the latest set of official statistics released by Government showed that the RPA had met its first target for the year in making