THE majority of farmers should receive their full or part single farm payments within a week.

David Miliband, new Secretary of State at Defra, announced on Tuesday that 85pc of the £1.5bn-worth of expected payments would be issued.

In a written statement to Parliament he said that, by May 4, more than 58,000 claimants - 48.5pc of the total - had received £552m in full payments.

A successful test-run of partial payments to 1,000 claim-ants was made at the end of last week. As a result, £730m in partial payments had been drawn up to reach farmers over the coming week.

"The task now is to ensure that the residual element of payments is made as soon as possible, and that a plan is in place to deal with those who, to date, have not yet received either a full or partial payment under the 2005 scheme," said Mr Miliband.

He said 31,000 claimants were excluded from the partial payments system - 26,000 because their claim amounted to less than 1,000 euros, and 5,000 because their cases were particularly complex.

"Making full payments to this group of 5,000 will now be given the highest priority by the Rural Payments Agency," said the Minister. "Increased priority will also be given to making outstanding payments under the Hill Farm Allowance scheme in recognition of the importance of HFA payments to those concerned.

"I am acutely conscious of the difficulties endured so far, and the magnitude of the challenge that still lies ahead to complete delivery of the 2005 SPS scheme year.

"The fact that previous estimates of payment timetables were missed, and the problems this has caused for farmers up and down the country, are a matter of deep regret.

"I am determined that the right lessons are learned from our experience this year, first to prepare for the undoubted challenges that will exist in the delivery of the 2006 scheme, and second to move to a more stable situation for the 2007 scheme year.

He urged farmers to submit their applications for the 2006 year by the May 15 deadline, although late claim penalties would now not be applied to those received by May 31.

Mr Miliband announced that Tony Cooper would take over as interim chief executive of the Rural Payments Agency on Monday in place of Mark Addison.

Mr Cooper has 15 years' experience of business and IT change within the public sector and a proven track record. A permanent appointment will be made at the end of the year, when the fundamental review of the RPA is complete.

Peter Kendall, president of the NFU, welcomed the part payments. "It means the pressure will be taken off many farmers and the problem of cashflow will be eased," he said, "This is what the industry has been waiting for."

David Hugill, chairman of the North Riding and Durham County NFU, said it was good news if payments were made in the next few days, but he was being contacted by more farmers with worries and concerns.

Mr Hugill was also concerned that 5,000 farmers would have to wait for a full, or part, payment owing to problems with their applications. "It is a real concern because there are still problems with maps and things," he said.

Chris Huhne, Liberal Democrat agriculture spokesman, welcomed the speeding up of payments but said Mr Miliband's apology would be cold comfort for English farmers.

"Rural communities are still smarting from the promotion of Margaret Beckett after her department created the biggest crisis in farming since foot-and-mouth," he said.

* A cautionary note is contained on the RPA website under "frequently asked questions", one of which asks why the partial payment is based on 80pc. The RPA says it is designed to inject as much money into the industry as quickly as possible. It meant the remainnig 20pc could be adjusted at the end of the validation process to ensure a correct final payment. It warns that the completion of the validation process may mean the recovery of some or all of any partial payment.