Future Farm Investment Scheme application queries: EIR release

Information requested

(1) How many employees of the Scottish Government were involved in the task of going through applications for the Future Farm Investment Scheme?

(2) Aside from employees of the Scottish Government were any other individuals involved in the process of going through the application process? If so can you outline from what organisation and how many people?

(3) On average how many hours did each person spend going through applications for the Future Farm Investment Scheme?

(4) How long, on average, was given to consideration of each application?

(5) Can you confirm if, at any part of the application review process, was any computerised programme used to help the review of the applications?

(6) If the answer to (5) can you outline the details of this.

Response

As the information you have requested is 'environmental information' for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

Q. How many employees of the Scottish Government were involved in the task of going through applications for the Future Farm Investment Scheme?

A. A core team of six Rural Payments and Inspection Division (RPID) officials from the Agricultural Development and Area Office teams were responsible for assessing applications to the Future Farming Investment Scheme. They were supported by a further six members of staff from across the RPID area office network, who provided additional capacity during the assessment and verification process.

Q. Aside from employees of the Scottish Government were any other individuals involved in the process of going through the application process? If so can you outline from what organisation and how many people?

A. Only members of the Scottish Government were involved in the assessment of FFIS applications.

Q. On average how many hours did each person spend going through applications for the Future Farm Investment Scheme?

A. We do not hold this level of detail. RPID staff reviewed each application to determine whether:

• the proposed capital items were eligible under the published scheme guidance
• sufficient information had been provided to assess the proposed investment
• that unlinked capital items had not been applied for as a single entry
• the investment was appropriate for the type of farm or croft business
• where capital items were described as delivering Electronic Identification (EID) or Water Efficiency benefits, that this was supported by the nature of the capital item

Q. How long, on average, was given to consideration of each application?

A. We do not hold this level of detail. Applications were assessed over a period of four weeks during October.

Q. Can you confirm if, at any part of the application review process, was any computerised programme used to help the review of the applications?

A. Yes, computerised programmes were used to validate the information provided by applicants against verified RPID records.

Q. If the answer to (5) can you outline the details of this.

A. An Excel based scoring tool was used to bring together verified business information drawn from existing RPID systems, which are also used to validate claims under other agricultural support schemes.

The Excel based tool applied the agreed scoring framework to produce consistent scores and rankings for all eligible applications taken forward for funding consideration.

While data verification and scoring were supported by digital tools, assessment decisions were human led and based on agricultural knowledge and professional judgement.

About FOI

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