Dear Sir,

I am writing in reference to the article in The Scottish Farmer entitled ‘A Young Farmer’s Future on a Knife Edge’, dated April 29, 2017, as I would like to correct an inaccuracy.

The young farmer, Mr Ronald, states that if the Less Favoured Area Support Scheme (LFASS) loan “is overpaid to a farmer, we have to pay interest on that extra funding”. That is simply not true.

If a farmer is paid more in a loan than what they were entitled to under the LFASS scheme, we will write to them with an invoice to settle this. The farmer then has seven days to repay the extra money they received and it is only if they are late in doing so, that interest would apply at 3.98% pa.

Fixing the CAP payment issues remains my number one priority. My focus remains on getting 2016 payments made as soon as possible but I know the situation regarding LFASS is not good enough. I understand how important these LFASS payments are to farmers and crofters in our most remote and marginalised areas, and that is why I took the decision to make these LFASS loans available again this year.

Our Question and Answer section on LFASS loans on the Rural Payments and Service system clearly explains this issue regarding interest for customers and answers any other queries they might have.

I would ask customers to refer to this if they have questions about the LFASS loans or to call our Customer Information Line on 0300 300 2222.

Yours sincerely,

Fergus Ewing

Cabinet Secretary for the Rural Economy and Connectivity