Scots farm cash stays private

SCOTS farmers will be spared from disclosing all but a few of their subsidy payments, unlike their English counterparts who face the publication of all funds they receive from the European Union.

Despite objections from the National Farmers Union in England, the Rural Payments Agency will release details next week of how much individual farms have been paid under the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

The disclosure, forced on the government by the Freedom of Information Act, could see payments to landowners, including the Queen and the Prince of Wales, made public for the first time.

Peter Kendall, the NFU deputy president, said: "We argued that this blanket disclosure is not sensitive to the position of some individual farmers."

In Scotland, the NFU told the Scottish Executive during talks earlier this year that it had no objection in principle to disclosing information.

Nonetheless, an Executive spokeswoman said last night that officials have concluded data about Scots payments is exempt "because of data protection principles and European legislation".

A spokeswoman for the Rural Payments Agency, which oversees most of the 1.7 billion in CAP payments received by British farmers, said it would release only a few details on Scottish farmers.

Only payments made to Scottish farmers outside the Integrated Administration and Control System - which covers most subsidies for livestock and land - will be made public from Tuesday.