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To give a full answer to the question i.e. to provide information spanning five years, broken down as requested has necessitated further bespoke interrogation of the IT system and will take some time to complete. The requested information will be made available to the requestor as soon as we are able to do so.

In the circumstance where a farmer of crofter has not received an illustration of entitlement letter, they should not delay in submitting a 2016 single application form. Rural payments and inspections division officials will take the entitlement allocated in to account when assessing eligibility for 2016. This is the same approach as taken in preceding years where clarification of previous entitlement position is outstanding.

Staff are continuing to work as hard as possible to process applications as quickly as possible, and we are continuing efforts to speed up progress, such as taking on extra staff. Payments are expected to be made within the current EU regulatory window.

The new rural payments and services computer system is being used to process the Scottish Suckler Beef Support Scheme and the Scottish Upland Sheep Support Scheme.

The Scottish Government's contract for the new rural payments and services IT system is with CGI. Spectromax, along with other agencies, is a supplier to CGI and the Scottish Government has not made any direct payments to Spectromax.

All Crofting Agricultural Grant applications, regardless of the type of proposal, are made to the applicants local area office in the first instance and there is therefore no need to notify the area offices of the purpose for an application at a later stage.

A total of 36 additional members of staff have been recruited to area offices to deal with payment issues. We have also recruited 35 additional professional staff members.

There has been no transfer of budget form the Crofting Agricultural Grant Scheme to any other budget.

The Scottish Government is working with the fishing industry to implement the landing obligation in the most flexible way and has always said it will work with other EU member states to resolve the difficult issues which we understand fishermen alone cannot fix.

Our Scottish Discards Steering Group, which includes representatives from the fishing industry, non-governmental organisations and active fishermen, meets on 17 March 2016 and will discuss a number of matters, including the proposed extension of the landing obligation in 2017 plus the aims of the international choke species workshop to be held in Edinburgh on 14-15 April 2016 where we hope there will be clarity on what the real biological choke issues are and what the options are for addressing them. Member states and advisory council representatives have been invited to attend and contribute to the choke species workshop.

The £200 million figure was arrived at by taking account of the % age of funding being paid as first instalments payments and the amount already paid to farmers and crofters.