Rural Payments and Services

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• How to apply
• When to apply
• Meeting the Basic Payment Scheme rules
• Active farming
• Basic Payment Scheme entitlements
• Minimum claim size
• Young Farmer payment
• Basic Payment Scheme eligible land
• The Greening rules
• Cross Compliance
• Payments over €150,000
• Reductions and penalties
• Download guidance

On 1 January 2015, the Single Payment Scheme / Single Farm Payment was replaced by the Basic Payment Scheme.

Farmers will receive one payment for the land they claim in the whole of the UK under the Basic Payment Scheme (including the Greening payment and any top-up payment for young farmers).

Farmers with a ‘cross-border’ holding (land in two or more parts of the UK: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales) need to submit a Basic Payment Scheme application to each part of the UK where they have land.

There are different rules for Basic Payment Scheme in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

This guidance gives more information for farmers with a cross-border holding about how to:

• apply for a Basic Payment Scheme payment
• meet the Basic Payment Scheme rules on their holding – including the active farmer and Greening rules
• meet Cross Compliance rules
• apply for entitlements
• apply for the Young Farmer payment

Who manages the schemes in different parts of the UK?

These ‘paying agencies’ manage the schemes and make payments:

• England – Rural Payments Agency (RPA)
• Northern Ireland – Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD)
• Scotland – Rural Payments and Inspections Division (RPID)
• Wales – Rural Payments Wales (RPW)

Where to find scheme rules and guidance

You can access scheme rules and guidance for each part of the UK using the links below:

• Scotland
• England
• Wales
• Northern Ireland

Farmers with a cross-border holding need to submit a Basic Payment Scheme application in all the parts of the UK where they have land. They need to do this even if they are not claiming Basic Payment Scheme in all those parts of the UK.

In future, all applications will need to be made online. However, in 2015, most farmers with land in Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales will be sent a paper application form but will also have the choice of applying online.

Read the guidance for the relevant part of the UK to find out which farmers will be sent paper application forms. Farmers in England will need to register online and then complete a paper application.

Farmers need to declare on their Basic Payment Scheme application whether they have land in more than one part of the UK.

They need to do this for each application they submit (one to each paying agency where they have land).

Farmers will be paid by the paying agency in the part of the UK where most of the land on their holding is located.

However, if a farmer’s most recent Single Payment Scheme / Single Farm Payment payment was made by a different paying agency, they can choose for their 2015 Basic Payment Scheme payment to be made by that paying agency, even though most of their land is not in that part of the UK.

If farmers wish to nominate a different paying agency (as described in the previous paragraph), they need to tell the paying agency that paid their most recent Single Payment Scheme / Single Farm Payment payment by 9 June.

In England and Wales, farmers indicate this on their Basic Payment Scheme application form.

In Northern Ireland, this is done by telephoning 0300 200 7848 and in Scotland it is done by telephoning 0300 244 9564 or by emailing Direct_Payments@gov.scot.

The choice of paying agency won’t make any difference to the farmer’s payment or the rules the farmer needs to meet.

To avoid a penalty, farmers must send all Basic Payment Scheme applications and supporting documents to the relevant paying agencies by the Basic Payment Scheme application deadline set by the paying agency which is paying them.

More details about penalties can be found below. Read the guidance for each part of the UK for information about application deadlines – see above.

For some scheme rules (such as rules on land eligibility – see below), farmers need to meet the rules set by the part of the UK where the relevant land is located.

For other rules (such as rules on the minimum claim size – see below), farmers need to meet the rules set by the part of the UK where most of the land on their holding is located. This applies even if the farmer has chosen to be paid by a paying agency for a different part of the UK.

The rest of this leaflet provides detail on which rules apply.

To claim Basic Payment Scheme, a farmer must be an ‘active farmer’. There are two parts to the active farmer test – the first is about business activity and the second part is about ‘land naturally kept in a state suitable for grazing or cultivation’.

This second part does not apply to land in England or Northern Ireland.

In 2015, the test about business activity does not apply to farmers who had a 2014 Single Payment Scheme / Single Farm Payment (and Scottish Beef Scheme) claim worth €5,000 or less for the entire holding, before any penalties were applied or cross compliance reductions were made.

Read the guidance for each part of the UK for more information on the active farmer rule – see above.

Business activity

Businesses operating certain non-agricultural activities (sometimes called the ‘negative list’) won’t be able to apply for the Basic Payment Scheme, unless they can prove they meet one of the ‘readmission criteria’.

Applicants will need to meet the rules set in the part of the UK where most of their land is, and will need to show they meet these rules through the paying agency for that part of the UK.

Some re-admission criteria are based on the amount of eligible land a farmer has. This is all the land on a farmer’s holding (covering all land in the UK).

If a farmer doesn’t meet the active farmer rules, they won’t be able to claim on any of their land, apply for entitlements or receive transferred entitlements, anywhere in the UK.

Naturally kept land

There is no designated ‘naturally kept land’ in England or Northern Ireland.

In Scotland, ‘naturally kept land’ is considered to be all land located in Payment Regions Two and Three (read Scotland’s Basic Payment Scheme guidance for details of those regions).

In Wales, salt marshes and coastal sand dunes are considered to be ‘naturally kept land’.

Farmers with ‘naturally kept’ land in Scotland or Wales won’t be able to apply for Basic Payment Scheme for land anywhere in the UK if:

• their naturally kept land is more than 50 per cent of the agricultural land on their holding (including any agricultural land in other parts of the UK); and
• on their naturally kept land they don’t carry out the minimum activity set out in the scheme guidance for Scotland (for naturally)

Each part of the UK has different Basic Payment Scheme entitlements. To claim Basic Payment Scheme, farmers must have the right number and type of entitlements for their land.

In England, Single Farm Payment entitlements automatically became Basic Payment Scheme entitlements on 1 January 2015.

In Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, farmers have to apply for new Basic Payment Scheme entitlements as part of their 2015 Basic Payment Scheme application.

Only farmers who successfully applied for the Single Payment Scheme or the Single Farm Payment (or the Scottish Beef Scheme) anywhere in the UK in 2013 will get entitlements.

However, there are some exceptions to this 2013 requirement – information about these can be found in the scheme guidance for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

In addition, farmers may be able to apply for entitlements from a national reserve (see below).

Applying for Basic Payment Scheme entitlements from a national reserve

England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales each have a national reserve (sometimes referred to as a ‘regional reserve’).

Some farmers, such as new and young farmers, will be able to apply for Basic Payment Scheme entitlements from these national reserves.

To obtain more entitlements, eligible farmers need to apply for them to all the paying agencies where they:

• have eligible land; and
• wish to be allocated more entitlements

The same principle applies if eligible farmers with entitlements in Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales wish to apply to the national reserve to have the value of these entitlements increased to the regional average entitlements value.

The farmer also needs to meet the rules for the national reserve set in the part of the UK in which they are applying.

For example, farmers applying to the national reserve in Northern Ireland need to have a level two qualification in agriculture (or a related subject containing at least one farm business management module) to be eligible for an allocation of entitlements from the national reserve in relation to any land in Northern Ireland.

When to apply for Basic Payment Scheme entitlements

To avoid a penalty, paying agencies must have received entitlement applications and the relevant supporting evidence by the application deadline set by the paying agency which is paying them.

Read the guidance for each part of the UK for information about application deadlines – see above.

Farmers must meet the minimum claim size set by the part of the UK where most of the land on their holding is located. The minimum claim sizes are shown below.

If farmers don’t meet the relevant minimum claim size, they can’t claim for land anywhere in the UK.

Some farmers may find themselves on the threshold of the minimum claim size. The examples below show how to work out if a farmer is meeting the minimum claim size.

If a farmer is 40 years old or younger in the year of their first Basic Payment Scheme application, they may be eligible for a young farmer payment. Applicants will need to apply in each part of the UK where they want to receive this payment.

The Young Farmer payment is a top-up payment made on the number of eligible hectares (with entitlements) a farmer uses to claim Basic Payment Scheme.

The Young Farmer payment works differently in different parts of the UK (see table below).

The payment is first made for whichever part of the UK the farmer claims most eligible land (with entitlements). This can’t exceed the maximum set in that part of the UK (see table above.)

If the farmer has claimed less than 90 eligible hectares (with entitlements) there, they could also receive the payment in other parts of the UK – as long as they do not exceed the maximum that applies in those other parts of the UK.

A young farmer can’t receive a payment on more than a total of 90 hectares (with entitlements) for their holding (land in all parts of the UK).

Farmers applying for the Young Farmer payment in Northern Ireland need to have a level two qualification in agriculture (or a related subject containing at least one farm business management module) to be eligible for the payment on any land in Northern Ireland.

Read the guidance for each part of the UK for more information – see above.

The land used to claim BPS payments must meet the rules that apply in the part of the UK where the land is located. Read the guidance for each part of the UK for more information – see above.

Farmers need to meet the greening rules on crop diversification and ecological focus areas (EFAs) at a ‘holding’ level, not separately for land in each part of the UK.

This means that they need to include all of the land on their holding (covering all land in the UK) when working out:

• what their crop diversification and EFA requirement is; and
• whether they meet those requirements

Farmers should also include all of their holding (covering all their land in the UK) when working out if they can use any of the greening exemptions. The greening exemptions are the same across the UK for crop diversification and EFAs.

Read the guidance for each part of the UK for more information – see above.

What this means for the crop diversification rules

The crop diversification rules prescribe how many crops a farmer must grow and over what percentage of their arable land.

A farmer should include all of the eligible land on their holding (covering all their land in the UK) to work out:

• their arable area
• the percentage of their arable area taken up by each crop; and
• whether any of the crop diversification exemptions apply to them

A farmer doesn’t have to have the required number, and shares, of crops in each part of the UK they have land – they only need to meet the crop diversification rules across their holding as a whole.

Each part of the UK has lists of crops that qualify under crop diversification. Farmers need to use the lists that apply where their land is located.

What this means for Ecological Focus Areas

Farmers with more than 15 hectares of arable land also need to have EFAs that are the equivalent to at least five per cent of their arable land, unless they qualify for an exemption. Read the guidance for each part of the UK for more information on the exemptions – see above.

A farmer should use all the eligible land on their holding (covering all their land in the UK) to work out:

• their arable land;
• their five per cent EFA requirement; and
• whether any of the EFA exemptions apply

Farmers can use areas and / or features on any part of their holding (in any part of the UK) to meet the five per cent EFA requirement.

This means that a farmer doesn’t have to meet the five per cent in each part of the UK they have land – they only need to meet it across their holding as a whole.

A farmer must meet the EFA rules that apply in the part of the UK where the land or feature being used for EFA is located.

There are differences in which areas and features a farmer can use for EFA in each part of the UK. There are also differences in what areas and features are worth as part of EFA.

The table below shows which features and areas can be used in each part of the UK.

Permanent grassland

Farmers must meet the rules that apply in the part of the UK where their permanent grassland is located. Read the guidance for each part of the UK for more information – see above.

Farmers need to meet the cross compliance rules that apply in the part of the UK where the land, or livestock, is located.

Read the guidance for each part of the UK for more information – see above.

If a farmer’s 2015 Basic Payment Scheme payment (excluding the Greening payment and any Young Farmer payment) is more than €150,000, the amount over €150,000 will be reduced.

The table below shows the reductions that apply in different parts of the UK:

Reductions are worked out based on the proportion of the total value of entitlements a farmer has used to claim payment in each part of the UK. Then the reduction rates above are applied.

The example below shows how reductions are worked out.

If a farmer doesn’t meet the scheme rules, reductions and penalties may be applied. They may be applied if a farmer:

• makes an application for payment or application for entitlements late
• makes certain changes to their application after the deadline
• doesn’t meet the scheme eligibility, Greening or Cross Compliance rules; or
• doesn’t declare all of their agricultural land parcels

All of the land on a farmer’s holding (covering all their land in the UK) is treated together for the purposes of calculating reductions and penalties.

More details about reductions and penalties are available in the scheme guidance for each part of the UK – see above for more information.

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