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3 FUTURE TRENDS
3.1 Our review has taken place at a time of great uncertainty as to what the future holds in terms of appeals. We are on the cusp of change from the old aid regime to the new and it is very difficult to judge how many appeals the new system is likely to generate. As we have seen, it was anticipated that it would lead to a marked reduction in the number of appeals. That that has not yet happened is probably simply because of the large number of entitlement appeals which has characterised the early days of SFP. The expectation would be that once these have been worked through the anticipated reduction in volume will take place. That is not a universally held view, however: some of the farmers' representatives from other EU countries to whom we spoke thought there would be more appeals under the new regime. There is also a view that although numbers of appeals may fall such appeals as are taken will be more complex and will thus require more time and care to decide.
3.2 Another uncertainty is as to the destiny of appeals arising out of Rural Development Programmes. What appeal rights will there be under these programmes and to whom? On the face of it there seems little to be said for the setting up of a different system to deal with these.
3.3 In that state of uncertainty we have taken the view that what is important is to get the system right, regardless of how many cases the system has to process. The volume of business which has to be processed will govern what is required in the way of resources to process it but it should not determine what is appropriate by way of structure and procedure. We discuss this further at paragraph 5.27.
3.4 With that acknowledgement of the current state of uncertainty we turn to the problems we have found in the present structure and procedure.
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