Defra Addresses CAP GOV.UK Verify Concerns

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has responded to concerns surrounding the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform and the GOV.UK Verify service.

CAP is an EU policy covering farming, environmental measures, rural development and controls EU agricultural markets.

In the UK, Defra is working to bring its CAP Information Service into the digital by default ages and needs to incorporate the new online identity assurance programme GOV.UK Verify into this.

The CAP Information Service is a new application and payment service for CAP schemes and as of October 2014, users must verify their identity via the new Whitehall scheme.

According to a government blog dedicated to CAP Reform, customers have been providing feedback on the new scheme and not everyone is getting past GOV.UK Verify at this stage.

“Nobody is excluded from the service is they can’t register,” claims Emily Ball, Defra CAP Customer Insight Lead, in the post.

“The certified companies have telephone helplines you can call if you have problems. The registration packs also have helpline details,” she adds, while also reassuring the questions asked by the companies help assure a high level of security.

Customer Feedback Used To Make Improvements

Defra claims that the CAP and GOV.UK Verify integration is continuously changing and improving, with new parts being added and amended based on customer comments.

It adds that more customers will be added to the service once they are satisfied all current feedback has been properly addressed.

In June this year, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Parliamentary Committee called upon the government to make the digital by default policy for CAP much clearer.

Concerns were raised that many farmers operate in remote areas with poor broadband and by making the CAP funding application process online only, many were going to be inevitably excluded.

© 24N.biz