:00:09. > :00:13.Tonight: Why we are paying out millions of pounds of public money.
:00:13. > :00:19.And why are we asking for almost nothing in return? What did you get
:00:19. > :00:23.last year? I got �1.3 million. �1.3 million? Yes. How money that
:00:23. > :00:27.is meant to help preserve our countryside is divert for private
:00:27. > :00:31.profit. It's a system that is broken a
:00:31. > :00:35.system that's corrupt, a system that's abused and public money
:00:35. > :00:40.going to people who don't need it And those getting rich as a result.
:00:40. > :00:46.Do you own a farm? No. I am clearly not rural in any way. I don't even
:00:46. > :00:52.own a pair of wellies. Tonight, Panorama exposes the money
:00:52. > :01:02.farmers by joining them. We track down the wealthy people paid large
:01:02. > :01:09.sums of public money. The starkest warning yet of the
:01:09. > :01:14.spending cuts to come... This is the unavoidable Budget. �6 billion
:01:14. > :01:22.of spending cuts... Many of reduce fighting for our jobs, benefits,
:01:22. > :01:27.capped or cut, but is everyone facing the same, hard times? There
:01:27. > :01:32.is one area of public spending that is not being cut.
:01:32. > :01:40.We spend around �3.5 billion a year on farming subsidies, but what are
:01:40. > :01:44.we getting for our money? To answer that question, I travelled to a
:01:44. > :01:48.well-heeled part of Edinburgh. This is Paul Millan. He's a townie
:01:48. > :01:52.through and through. Making his money on upmarket property
:01:52. > :01:55.developments like this one, a �1 million town house.
:01:55. > :02:03.This one will stay as a dwelling house.
:02:03. > :02:06.So this is not for you to buy for you? No, this is another property
:02:06. > :02:11.development. Paul's business is thriving, but he
:02:11. > :02:14.has a sideline going on. A lucrative one. He's found a way of
:02:14. > :02:21.tapping into a private source of public money.
:02:21. > :02:26.I own a farming subsidy, that I bought in 2006.
:02:26. > :02:31.On Ann newel basis I claim that farming subsidy. So, although it
:02:31. > :02:36.seems a little odd officially, I am legally a farmer as well.
:02:37. > :02:42.Do you own a farm? No. I am clearly not rural in any way. I don't even
:02:42. > :02:47.own a pair of wellies. Confused? So was I, but Paul Millan
:02:47. > :02:52.has discovered a loophole in the farming subsidy system. It allows
:02:52. > :02:58.him, basically, to get lots, and lots of public money, which was
:02:59. > :03:03.meant to go to farmers. You thought, kerching, that is a
:03:03. > :03:08.money opportunity? Absolutely. I have been able to do it, I've been
:03:08. > :03:10.smart enough to do it, but it is odd. No doubt.
:03:10. > :03:15.A happy odd when you get the cheques? Absolutely.
:03:15. > :03:21.The loophole is giving Paul a very good return on his investment..
:03:21. > :03:28.It will be about 275 times on my initial investment.
:03:28. > :03:31.That is a massive return? It is huge. With the benefit of hindsight
:03:31. > :03:36.I would have sold everything that I own, including my own house, to
:03:36. > :03:41.have this type of investment with this return. It is over 30% a year.
:03:41. > :03:46.Paul Millan is clearly a man with an ie for a deal. In the past five
:03:46. > :03:50.years, he has doubled his money -- eye. So far, he's been paid almost
:03:50. > :03:54.a quarter of a million pounds in public cash. It is effectively an
:03:54. > :03:59.investment guaranteeed by the state. If he had put his money in
:03:59. > :04:08.Government bonds, he would have been lucky to get a return of 4% or
:04:08. > :04:12.5% a year. Now if what pall is saying is right,
:04:12. > :04:18.it sounds like money for doing absolutely nothing. To a hard-
:04:18. > :04:24.working person like me, that seems like a good deal. If he can do it,
:04:24. > :04:28.then I can too, but first, how does the loophole itself work? Well,
:04:28. > :04:32.farmers get financial support in the form of a Government subsidy
:04:32. > :04:38.payment for every hectare of land that they have. In this example,
:04:38. > :04:43.our farmer has ten hectares. Each is worth �100 in subsidy. It is ten
:04:43. > :04:48.times �100, that is �1,000 a year from the Government. Well, us, it
:04:48. > :04:53.is public money, after all. Now, he can sell the right or the
:04:53. > :04:58.entitlement to claim that money to anyone he likes. So an investor
:04:58. > :05:03.like Paul Millan buy it is from the farmer. The farmer walks away with
:05:03. > :05:08.a one-off lump sum in his pocket. Now all the investor has to do is
:05:08. > :05:12.rent ten hectares of any land, now the Government pays the investor
:05:12. > :05:17.�1,000 eefr year. He doesn't have to farm -- every year. He doesn't
:05:17. > :05:22.have to farm, the obligation is to keep the land in good condition.
:05:22. > :05:27.Which, the barren ground rented for by investors means just leaving it
:05:27. > :05:33.alone, but this is not what the farming subsidy system was meant to
:05:33. > :05:37.be used for. Its roots lie in the end of the Second World War.
:05:37. > :05:40.ADVERTISEMENT: Among the workers are boys putting in their week of
:05:40. > :05:47.working. There was a fear that Europe may
:05:47. > :05:51.not be able to feed itself. That led to farmers getting spoth from
:05:51. > :05:57.public bodies. But our investigation suggests that it is
:05:57. > :06:03.not all going where it should. You can get small farmers or non-
:06:03. > :06:09.farmers who buy the entitlements and rent land that produce s very,
:06:09. > :06:13.relittle and gain all of the subsidy. That's a, to my mind, a
:06:14. > :06:19.startling abuse of the system. We can reveal for the first time,
:06:19. > :06:23.the full extent of the abuse of the subsidy system. Different rules
:06:23. > :06:27.apply to different parts of the UK. We have discovered that the
:06:27. > :06:32.Scottish Government is paying out huge sums of money to people who
:06:32. > :06:36.are not actively farming the land. Their own estimate, prepared for us,
:06:36. > :06:46.is that figure could be anywhere between �3 million and �30 million
:06:46. > :06:51.a year. But how easy would it be for anyone,
:06:51. > :06:55.including me, to get their hands on some of that cash? First, he to
:06:55. > :07:00.register myself as a farmer. There was not a test. I did not need land.
:07:00. > :07:05.I just had to fill in a simple form. What's just arrived is what I've
:07:05. > :07:10.been waiting for. It is a letter from the Scottish Government. It is
:07:10. > :07:14.to say that my business, Sam's Farming is now official. It
:07:14. > :07:19.basically means that as of now, I am a farmer.
:07:19. > :07:24.So, step one of exploiting the loophole is completed. Step two is
:07:24. > :07:32.to buy the right to claim the subsidy. Moving on to the next lot.
:07:32. > :07:37.Lot 11 is ours. Fingers crossed. No bids yet. It is all very
:07:37. > :07:40.civilised doing it this way. I quite like being a farmer. On this
:07:40. > :07:45.live auction website, farmers owning subsidy entitlements can
:07:45. > :07:53.sell them to other farmers or investors like me. Oh, we are
:07:53. > :07:57.winning! I'm winning. I am the current buyer of these entitlements.
:07:57. > :08:01.Sold to remote buyer, that's me, I think.
:08:01. > :08:06.The transaction is successful. I have just bought my first
:08:06. > :08:10.entitlements. Fantastic. All I have to do now is attach that
:08:10. > :08:20.entitlement to a piece of empty land, do nothing and the Government
:08:20. > :08:22.
:08:22. > :08:30.will pay me as a farmer. So now I've got a whole new life
:08:30. > :08:38.ahead of me. A lady of leisure. I might get myself just one cow to
:08:38. > :08:43.keep me company, but no muddy farms for me.
:08:43. > :08:48.That might seem like a dream, but others are using the loophole to
:08:48. > :08:51.generate serious money. I'm in the middle of a field in
:08:51. > :08:56.Sutherland, the reason why is because Balnacoil Estates is just a
:08:56. > :09:02.few miles over the hills. Last year, that estate attracted almost half a
:09:02. > :09:06.million pounds in public subsidies. We have spoken to local farmers and
:09:06. > :09:09.checked with the experts and no-one thinks that there is a farming
:09:09. > :09:13.business here. So we are tpwing to have a little look at Balnacoil
:09:13. > :09:19.Estates. -- we are going to have a little look at Balnacoil Estates.
:09:19. > :09:24.Our suspicion is that they are using the naked acres, as they are
:09:24. > :09:29.called, to exploit the subsidy, but on a bigger scale.
:09:29. > :09:33.We know that Balnacoil Estates has been buying up lots of subsidy
:09:33. > :09:37.entitlements. You just have to look to see that they have a ready
:09:37. > :09:42.supply of acres. It is incredible. Balnacoil Estates is not a farm. It
:09:42. > :09:47.is a sporting estate where the owners or guests can fish for
:09:47. > :09:53.salmon or shoot wild deer. Our research shows that after this
:09:53. > :09:58.estate was purchased for �3.5 million, the Danish other than
:09:58. > :10:00.bought entitlements worth nearly half a million. That means that a
:10:00. > :10:08.foreign multi-millionaire is being paid this country's public money,
:10:08. > :10:12.but for what? Well, I have seen a couple of lochs, and deer, but no
:10:12. > :10:17.much farming. In fact, I have not seen any farming yet. I'm looking...
:10:17. > :10:24.I'm looking hard, but nothing. Actually, there is some sheep.
:10:24. > :10:28.I think that counts as farming. We've found no evidence of a
:10:28. > :10:33.significant farming business here. Certainly not one that might
:10:33. > :10:38.justify a pay-out on the scale that the estate is getting. The other
:10:38. > :10:42.than is Peter Nissen. He made his money selling outsized clothing for
:10:42. > :10:48.the larger customer in Scandinavia. We put our findings to him of the
:10:48. > :10:53.fact that he claims almost half a million pounds a year, despite
:10:53. > :10:57.doing no significant farming. He refused to answer our questions.
:10:57. > :11:00.It is scandalous. I think that is a very good example of a system that
:11:00. > :11:10.is broken, a system that's corrupt, a system that's been abused and
:11:10. > :11:18.public money that is going to people, who frankly don't need it
:11:18. > :11:23.I met up with someone to talk to about this.
:11:23. > :11:30.Stephen Strathdee is one of Britain's biggest recipients of
:11:30. > :11:38.farming subsidy. Sitting here alone is how much? It is over �1 million
:11:38. > :11:43.here. They are well over �1 million. The combines? They are up to
:11:43. > :11:50.�200,000 -plus. He and his wife, Freida, own 39 farms.
:11:50. > :11:57.You must be worth quite a lot of money? OK! I'm not complaining!
:11:57. > :12:03.Seriously, though, you must have a few pounds in the pocket? Aye. Well,
:12:03. > :12:07.worth about �50M net worth. �50 million by anyone's standards
:12:07. > :12:12.is a large sum of money. Stephen Strathdee is not someone who seems
:12:12. > :12:18.in desperate need of public cash. Yet that is exactly what he is
:12:18. > :12:25.getting. In terms of a farming subsidy, how
:12:25. > :12:31.much do you get? What did you get last year? I got �1.3 million.
:12:31. > :12:35.million, that is a lot. Do you actually need public money to fund
:12:35. > :12:39.a business and your worth, which is tens of millions? Do you need that
:12:39. > :12:43.public money? Yes, we need to do the farming unless we would not be
:12:43. > :12:50.producing the food. We could hot do without it. It would be pointless
:12:50. > :12:54.to do it. You would not make a profit. It would be a big loss.
:12:54. > :13:01.Stephen Strathdee wanted us to see his active farm business, but he is
:13:01. > :13:06.also a major trader in entitlements. He spent around �3 million in
:13:06. > :13:12.buying them up and attaching they will them to empty land. In return,
:13:12. > :13:17.he is getting back millions more in money. What does the taxpayer get
:13:17. > :13:22.in return? It is not just me that gets the benefit. The farmers pay
:13:22. > :13:27.tax on sale of the entitlements. The money that I borrow, the bank
:13:27. > :13:29.gets a profit off it. It keeps people in work. But how does
:13:29. > :13:35.Stephen Strathdee defend himself from critics who say that the
:13:35. > :13:40.system should not be paying him for using the loophole? It is a system.
:13:40. > :13:45.It is in place. We stay within the rules.
:13:45. > :13:50.If they want to change it to get new rules, then we will look at how
:13:50. > :13:57.it works in the future. So, Stephen Strathdee says he just
:13:57. > :14:03.does what the rules allow him to do. After all, he is a businessman. He
:14:03. > :14:07.invests in forestry, wind farms, developing housing, the subsidy
:14:07. > :14:12.loophole is no different. The profits go back into his business,
:14:12. > :14:22.but where there are winners, there are losers too. In much of the UK,
:14:22. > :14:25.
:14:25. > :14:27.the system discriminates against helping out on his father's farm in
:14:27. > :14:31.Powys. It is a beautiful view out there.
:14:31. > :14:36.You cannot beat this kind of farmingment once it is in your
:14:36. > :14:41.blood you just want to carry on. But for a young farmer like Marc,
:14:41. > :14:46.the system that allows those with deep pockets to benefit from
:14:46. > :14:52.subsidy entitlements acts against him. As well as finding the capital
:14:52. > :14:58.to buy livestock and rent the land, he needs to find the money to buy
:14:58. > :15:02.the subsity entitlement when the banks are not lending. Why buy the
:15:02. > :15:06.entitlements? That should come with the farm that you have? No, it does
:15:06. > :15:09.not. The system was set up on a traditional basis. So what the
:15:09. > :15:14.farmers were getting ten years ago is basically how they have set it
:15:14. > :15:24.up now. So anyone new coming in to the industry has to buy
:15:24. > :15:27.
:15:27. > :15:31.entitlements, which is a bit of an Without single farm payment and
:15:31. > :15:36.entitlements, the farm doesn't make any money at all. Mark is stuck
:15:36. > :15:41.helping out his dad, despite being desperate to start his own farm.
:15:41. > :15:45.That's because the payments farmers get today are based on activity ten
:15:45. > :15:51.years ago. New farmers coming onto the ground either have to buy the
:15:51. > :15:54.right to claim subsidy on do without. -- or do without. The
:15:54. > :15:57.people selling that right are often retired or renting out their
:15:57. > :16:05.farmland to someone else. It's another case of money going to
:16:05. > :16:09.people who aren't actually farming. Mark arranged for me to meet a
:16:09. > :16:14.couple of other young farmers in his local. I wondered whether
:16:14. > :16:20.they'd resent those who are able to claim without working the land.
:16:20. > :16:25.can see it in a way as being very shrewd businessmen or women, who
:16:25. > :16:29.have worked the system. There's nothing wrong with that really, but
:16:29. > :16:33.what does frustrate you is seeing the amount of money they're
:16:33. > :16:38.receiving for actually, they're playing the game,if you like. It's
:16:38. > :16:41.the system that is wrong. Is it a bit of envy as well then? Of course,
:16:41. > :16:44.it is. There's an element there, because it frustrates you that you
:16:44. > :16:48.can't go to that level because you haven't got the financial backing
:16:49. > :16:53.to be able to do it as the way things are. The problems we've seen
:16:53. > :16:57.so far are largely down to the trade in subsidy. But the Common
:16:57. > :17:01.Agricultural Policy means there are also some recipients that might
:17:01. > :17:09.seem a bit odd. For example, Manchester airport gets subsidy
:17:09. > :17:14.because there are tenant farmers on some of its lan. Eton gets subsidy
:17:14. > :17:19.from environmental improvements. Christ Church Oxford get payments
:17:19. > :17:23.because they craze cattle on land that they own. There's even money
:17:23. > :17:27.that go to the estates of dead people and some golf courses claim
:17:27. > :17:32.as well. There's a more fundamental issue, the Common Agricultural
:17:32. > :17:39.Policy plays people a flat rate for every hectare of land they own.
:17:39. > :17:45.When it comes to subsidies paid to land owners, there's no upper limit
:17:45. > :17:50.on payments or means testing. So the biggest land owners are the
:17:50. > :17:56.real winners. Some of those whom we the public are supporting might
:17:56. > :17:59.surprise you. The search for them brought me here to Central London.
:17:59. > :18:03.Subsidy campaigner Jack Thurston agreed to accompany me on a tour
:18:03. > :18:09.which went in search of some of the people who are perfectly legally
:18:09. > :18:15.pulling down six-figure sums. Over my left shoulder is London's Ritz
:18:15. > :18:20.Hotel. We're not far from Park Lane. That's home to someone who
:18:20. > :18:25.invariably pops up every now and again on Britain's rich list, Sir
:18:25. > :18:31.Richard Sutton. Last year he got �1.9 million in farming subsidies,
:18:31. > :18:35.over ten years that's �13 million of public money. Sir Richard Sutton
:18:35. > :18:39.is a barren et with extensive property holdings. You might not
:18:39. > :18:43.have heard of him, but you will have heard of the Duke of
:18:43. > :18:49.Westminster, reportedly worth �7 billion, which makes him the
:18:49. > :18:53.richest Briton alive. This is Grosvenor Street it's home to the
:18:53. > :18:58.business enterprises of one Major- General Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor,
:18:58. > :19:04.the Duke of Westminster to you and I. In the last ten years, he has
:19:04. > :19:09.earned around �6 million in farming subsidies alone. And you may be
:19:09. > :19:16.surprised to hear that Her Majesty the Queen is also a significant
:19:16. > :19:21.recipient of subsidies. In the last ten years, she's received around �7
:19:21. > :19:25.million in farming subsidies. We ran all these numbers, which have
:19:25. > :19:28.been taken from Government records, past the Queen, the Duke of
:19:28. > :19:33.Westminster and Sir Richard Sutton, none of them wanted to be
:19:33. > :19:40.interviewed or comment on the figures. But a Buckingham Palace
:19:40. > :19:44.spokesperson said, like others with agricultural interests we have in
:19:44. > :19:46.receipt of the single farm payment. The Queen, the Duke of Westminster,
:19:46. > :19:50.Sir Richard Sutton don't strike me as people who are in particular
:19:50. > :19:53.need of public money. You're absolutely right. These are very
:19:53. > :19:56.wealthy people F we're in the business of handing out public
:19:56. > :19:59.money to farmers because they're poor, these are not the kind of
:19:59. > :20:04.people we'd be handing that money to. We're talking millions. It's a
:20:04. > :20:08.lot of money. It's public money. It's an awful lot of money. The
:20:08. > :20:12.reason they get so much is because they own so much land. The farm
:20:12. > :20:17.subsidies are allocated on the basis of how many land you have,
:20:17. > :20:22.not how much financial need you're in. Panorama can reveal for the
:20:22. > :20:27.first time the true extent of large payments across the UK. We've
:20:27. > :20:35.established for the last year available, 2010, almost 900
:20:35. > :20:41.recipients were paid over �250,000. Of them, 133 got over �500,000 and
:20:41. > :20:46.47 were paid over �1 million. But European privacy rules mean that we
:20:46. > :20:51.have no right to know who these people even are. In fact, the
:20:51. > :20:56.published information only names about a quarter of recipients. Why
:20:56. > :20:59.do you think there is such a lack of transparency? I think it's
:20:59. > :21:03.easier for governments and bureaucrats to keep things secret.
:21:03. > :21:07.It reduces the public scrutiny on a policy that's hard to justify, when
:21:07. > :21:12.everything is out in the open. doesn't seem fair. What it seems to
:21:12. > :21:16.mean is that the elite view, the wealthy land owners of this country,
:21:16. > :21:19.get' huge amount of money, but we don't actually have to be told
:21:19. > :21:24.clearly what they get. It's not fair. This kind of information
:21:24. > :21:28.should be made public. So how would the organisation representing
:21:28. > :21:34.farmers defend the payments made bit Common Agricultural Policy,
:21:35. > :21:39.also known as the CAP? The Queen, the Duke of Westminster, Sir
:21:39. > :21:43.Richard Sutton, do these people really need our money? Public
:21:43. > :21:47.financial support? We could have a very long debate about CAP...
:21:47. > :21:52.a simple yes or no frankly. Do these people need the financial
:21:52. > :21:56.support in terms of public money that they're getting? Your average
:21:56. > :22:01.farmer desperately needs that money. They're not your average farmer.
:22:01. > :22:05.point is, if you give me time to explain, is we've moved from
:22:05. > :22:11.supporting cows and sheep or a ton of wheat to paying it on a land
:22:11. > :22:16.area. Why did we make that change? Because when you subsidise a sheep,
:22:16. > :22:20.the more you kept, the more you got. When we subsidise the cow the more
:22:20. > :22:24.cows you kept the more support you've got. We rightly moved from a
:22:24. > :22:31.system that developed grey mountains and milk lakes etc, to
:22:31. > :22:36.one that paid on land and demanded people kept it in good condition.
:22:36. > :22:39.One of the anomalies is some with large land holdings receive some
:22:40. > :22:42.support. I'll ask the question again because I feel you haven't
:22:42. > :22:46.answered it. Do these people deserve the financial support
:22:46. > :22:52.they're getting in terms of the public money? Do they need the
:22:52. > :22:58.money? They are competing. I think, this is an agricultural policy not
:22:58. > :23:02.income policy. What we're saying is producing food receives some level
:23:02. > :23:07.of compensation from taxpayers. I don't think it's a great PR story
:23:07. > :23:15.from farming that someone might receive �1 million or �2 million.
:23:15. > :23:19.Of course I don't I -- don't. I would be naive. It's a side effect
:23:19. > :23:24.of the current system. I want money to go to farmers producing food
:23:24. > :23:34.whether it's two acres or 2,000 acres. With the current system with
:23:34. > :23:38.CAP it's unavoidable. So the NFU argues the European system makes
:23:38. > :23:42.these big payments unavoidable. That system is under review with a
:23:42. > :23:46.new regime due in the next two years. The man leading that process
:23:46. > :23:53.is determined that the big sums handed out to UK land owners will
:23:53. > :24:01.soon be a thing of the past. He proposes to cap payments at 300,000
:24:01. > :24:07.euros a year, about �250,000. very frustrated because these
:24:07. > :24:12.millions of very honest farmers have to suffer because some
:24:12. > :24:16.speculators, who use this opportunity, this Common
:24:16. > :24:22.Agricultural Policy, to become more rich only because they have some
:24:22. > :24:30.hectares. So this way, for me, this capping and definition of active
:24:30. > :24:35.farmer are two main elements of the next reform and I really hope that
:24:35. > :24:40.taxpayers in UK and in all around European Union will support this
:24:40. > :24:46.proposal of European Commission to obtain this more transparent, more
:24:46. > :24:51.targeted and more fair unite illisation of the use of the policy.
:24:51. > :24:55.In the UK the Scottish and Welsh administrations are willing to
:24:55. > :24:58.consider a cap N Northern Ireland - - Northern Ireland wants one set at
:24:58. > :25:05.just 100,000 euros. England's administration DEFRA is totally
:25:05. > :25:06.opposed to one. We wanted to ask DEFRA why, but they declined an
:25:06. > :25:16.interview, instead issues this interview, instead issues this
:25:16. > :25:33.
:25:33. > :25:37.I think it's in the a strong and good argument, because if business
:25:37. > :25:43.in agricultural is linked only to the subsidies, it's not a real
:25:43. > :25:46.business and efficient business. We have to ask these people to
:25:46. > :25:50.reorient this activity in another direction and be more efficient.
:25:50. > :25:59.Back in Scotland, it was time to wrap up my business decision to use
:25:59. > :26:06.the trading loophole. Although I may not be an actual working farmer,
:26:06. > :26:10.I thought I might as well travel like one. Do you know, everybody
:26:10. > :26:15.I've met has been telling me the same thing, it's not me, it's the
:26:15. > :26:18.system. What I'm doing is legal. It's the system. So I'm off to meet
:26:18. > :26:24.the man who's in charge of the system. I decided to take the
:26:24. > :26:27.opportunity to meet up with my farming colleagues at the union's
:26:27. > :26:35.AGM, where I'd have the chance to meet the man in charge of
:26:35. > :26:42.Scotland's subsidy system. Good morning. What a pleasure it is to
:26:42. > :26:43.be with you again at the AGM here in St Andrews. It's nice to spend
:26:43. > :26:48.St Valentine's Day with your loved ones.
:26:48. > :26:52.LAUGHTER Ultimately he's the man responsible
:26:52. > :26:57.for the loophole, which I've used to register as a farmer. I really
:26:57. > :27:00.am very frustrated by the serious flaw at the moment in the Common
:27:00. > :27:04.Agricultural Policy. I'm in the ludicrous position where I'm unable
:27:04. > :27:08.to support under European legislation farmers new entrants
:27:08. > :27:13.perhaps, young farmers, to help them produce, but we are paying out
:27:13. > :27:22.to some people who are not active. Like me. I'm a registered farmer
:27:22. > :27:26.now, apparently. There's my farm. I'm registered. There's the receipt
:27:26. > :27:30.for the entitlements I've bought. I've no interest in farming. This
:27:30. > :27:34.is what your system allows. It's Europe's system. We're trying to
:27:34. > :27:37.change the legislation. This is how it can be abused. This is why I've
:27:37. > :27:41.put so much effort in trying to persuade Europe to change the
:27:41. > :27:46.legislation with some success. We're going to get into the new
:27:46. > :27:50.policy what's called the Scottish clause. But this has been going on
:27:50. > :27:54.for long enough. Would you accept that? It's been going on for far
:27:54. > :27:58.too long. I've sat down face to face with European officials and
:27:58. > :28:01.said to them - can you help us fix this loophole? The European
:28:01. > :28:05.Commission said member states should have closed the loophole
:28:05. > :28:08.using rules introduced two years ago. The Scottish Government said
:28:09. > :28:12.those measures would have penalised genuine farmers. Whoever's
:28:12. > :28:18.responsible my experience of registering as a farmer was that it
:28:18. > :28:23.was easy. Why should people care about this? Because it's their
:28:23. > :28:27.money. This is public money and particularly in a time of cuts and
:28:27. > :28:31.austerity, we need to make sure every penny is spent as efficiently
:28:31. > :28:34.as possible. At the moment millions are going to people to do nothing.