I see that Scotland’s agriculture department stumbled from one crisis to another this week as it admitted that personal details of around 2,000 farmers were accidentally leaked.

Personal details of around 2,000 Beef Efficiency Scheme applicants were accidentally distributed in what the department described as “an administrative error in which email addresses were copied into the wrong field and were visible for all to see”. Computer-related issues have plagued the Scottish administration in recent months, despite a hefty investment of £178m (€205m) in a new IT system.

Another overspend hit the headlines in the autumn when a number of agri businesses were overpaid CAP monies. The mistake was due to a miscalculation by staff when converting euro to pounds.