DELAYS in payments to farmers are "unacceptable" and putting livelihoods at risk, according to the chairman of a Commons Select Committee.

Neil Parish, chairman of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, warned farmers are at risk of suffering further cash flow problems if the Rural Payment Agency (RPA) does not commit to fixing ongoing issues with its IT systems.

In its report on farmgate prices, published on Wednesday, the committee said grants administered by the RPA have been delayed since last year due to an inadequate electronic application system.

Mr Parish said: "Many producers rely on CAP payments to turn a profit so it is unacceptable that our farmers are still facing lengthy delays to financial support.

"The RPA introduced an IT system that wasn’t fit for purpose and subsequent errors made in the attempt to fix the problem only caused further delays and confusion for applicants.

"We welcome the efforts being made to solve this problem and reduce delays but it is crucial that the RPA works to at least match the target achieved by the previous scheme of 90 per cent of payments made by the end of December each year."

A Defra spokesman said: "The new CAP is widely acknowledged as the most complex ever and the task of setting up a new IT system to handle this additional complexity was a significant challenge.

"Throughout this period the collective focus has always remained on getting payments out to farmers as quickly as possible.

"In March 2015 there was a problem with one part of the online interface that enabled farmers to put data directly into Rural Payments, but the core of the system has always worked.

"More than 87,000 farmers registered on the system and it has been used to process and pay over 70,800 farmers – more than 80 per cent of all those eligible – their 2015 Basic Payment Scheme payment, totalling £1.11 billion.

"Almost all farmers in England will be paid by the end of this month and the Rural Payments system has been further improved for 2016 to make it easier for farmers to apply for CAP payments."

Farmers with common grazing rights have been particularly hard hit. The RPA has not said when they will receive their payments because of the complexity of the claims but, despite repeated calls from farming organisations, both it and Defra have repeatedly refused to give them part payments to help with their cashflow.