The Scottish Government is set to miss the deadline to handout EU farming subsidies for the second year in a row, the rural economy secretary has confirmed.

The devolved administration has until Friday to have processed and paid at least 95.24% of Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) payments under the European Commission's rules.

Fergus Ewing told MSPs on Holyrood's rural economy committee that the Scottish Government "may fall a few percentage points short" of the threshold.

When pressed further on how much his ministry will miss the quota by, Ewing replied: "Obviously we have given this particular thought, and we have made substantial progress, our central forecast is that we will make around 90% of payments.

"In other words, we will fall short by a few percentage points. We are making a large number of payments each day to achieve that."

He added: "I expect the remaining payments will be made fairly shortly after June 30."

On Thursday, it emerged the Scottish Government approached the Commission asking for a four-month extension to the payment deadline.

A spokesman for the Commission told STV News the organisation is yet to decide if it will grant an extension to the deadline.

He said: "The Commission is in contact with the Scottish Government and is continuing to consider the case made for an extension in the CAP payment deadline."

If the deadline is not extended the devolved administration risk a multi-million pound on top of one they are set to receive from last year's missed deadline.

Last year the Commission extended the deadline but some payments were still made inside the window.

The reoccurring problem of processing and paying the subsidies centre on a £178m government IT system.

Ewing defended the IT programme telling the committee that it "is working" but it "is not working on time".