McArthur campaigns for review of Appeals Procedure (Aberdeen South & North Kincardine Liberal Democrats)

Aberdeen South & North Kincardine Liberal Democrats <info@aberdeensouthlibdems.org.uk>

McArthur campaigns for review of Appeals Procedure

November 5, 2008 11:52 AM
Originally published by Scottish Liberal Democrats

div class=field field-type-text field-field-body div class=field-items div class=field-itempLiberal Democrat Rural Affairs spokesperson Liam McArthur has welcomed recommendations put forward in an independent review into the Agricultural Subsidy Appeals Procedure in Scotland./p pThe review has called for an abolition of the current three tier mechanism and its replacement with an independent Appeals Agency. The review also highlights the need for a cultural change to avoid the number of appeal cases being presented./p pspan class=inline inline-leftimg src=http://www.scotlibdems.org.uk/files/images/Liam-McArthur3.thumbnail.jpg alt= title= class=image image-thumbnail width=80 height=100 //spanCommenting, Mr McArthur said:/p p"I've long campaigned for a review of the Agriculture Subsidy Appeals Procedure. I'm pleased that the Scottish Government has finally recognised the need for reform in this area./p p"As it stands, the current system of agricultural subsidies penalties can impact harshly on farmers guilty of little more than an administrative error./p p"Those who deliberately try to defraud public funds should, of course, be dealt with severely but there is an urgent need for more proportionate penalties and an effective system of appeals."/p div class=image-clear/div/div /div /div