Farming subsidy secrecy under fire

CRITICISM has surrounded the decision to withhold details of how much farmers and landowners received in subsidy payments until after last week's General Election.

The details of all CAP payments were due to be published on April 30, in accordance with rules set out by the European Commission, with all other 26 European Union countries making the information available.

However civil servants decided to withhold publication until after polling so as to avoid any "influence" on campaigning.

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Officials within the European Commission are said to be unhappy with the decision, with its agricultural spokesman Roger Waite saying: "The commission is disappointed and is going to write to the British authorities underlining that this is not in line with the directive."

The campaigning website Farmsubsidy.org, set up to call for transparency in CAP payments was also critical with co-founder Jack Thurston saying some member states took "deliberate steps" to block access.

He said: "Perhaps the civil servants are trying to curry favour with their new bosses". A spokeswoman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs denied the allegation and said the only motive in the delay was to ensure that any partiality was avoided in the run up to May 6.

She said: "A brief delay reflects the need to maintain the impartiality of the UK civil service, given the potential risk that CAP payment information relating to any individuals involved in the election might be used as part of election campaigning."

She added: "We'll publish the data as soon as possible after the election but of course it will depend on at what point a government is formed as we still operate under election rules until then."

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