The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) has announced the appointment of Tony Cooper as its new chief executive.

Cooper joined the RPA as interim chief executive in 2006, and will take over from the previous chief executive Johnston McNeill.

NcNeill was removed from his post in March 2006 following the RPA’s announcement that it would not be able to meet its deadline for delivering Single Payment Scheme payments.

The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) has welcomed the news and in response to the Defra announcement president Peter Kendall commented: “We are pleased to see Tony Cooper confirmed in his post after over two years in an interim capacity. While the RPA is still some way from achieving an ‘excellent’ on its report card, I do recognise that Tony has done a good deal of important re-shaping behind the scenes. I wish him well as he continues the push towards recovery.”

Referring to the delivery challenges the current CAP ‘Health Check’ will bring, Kendall sounded a warning note to Defra ministers: “I have to trust that ministers and senior officials at Defra have genuinely learned the lessons of 2005-2006. I am really concerned that, on top of the administrative changes that will be required as part of the Health Check, Defra should be considering additional cross-compliance measures to offset the removal of set-aside.

“Quite apart from the question of whether mandatory measures are needed at all, integrating them into RPA systems could seriously threaten SPS delivery in 2009/2010.”

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