Scottish Upland Sheep Support Scheme
This scheme provides additional support, on top of the Basic Payment Scheme, to sheep producers who farm in Scotland's rough grazing areas.
These payments help farmers maintain the social and environmental benefits that sheep flocks bring to those areas.
- Full scheme guidance
- Updates
- Eligibility
- Applications
- Payment
- Inspections
- Non-compliance and penalties
- Appeals and complaints
- Contact
Before you apply for this scheme, you should read the full scheme guidance. If you have any questions, please check with us before you submit an application.
If you need any help or assistance to use this guidance, you can book an appointment at your local area office.
October 2017
The application deadline has been extended to November 2017
You will qualify for this payment if your business relies on rough grazing, with 80 per cent or more of your agricultural land in Payment Region three and less than 200 hectares of agricultural land in Payment Region one.
The payment regions are:
- Payment Region One – this includes better quality agricultural land that has been used for arable cropping, temporary grass and permanent grass
- Payment Region Two – this includes rough grazing with a Less Favoured Areas grazing category of B, C, D or non-Less Favoured Area
- Payment Region Three – this includes rough grazing with a Less Favoured Area grazing category of A
If your land does not have a grazing category, then it will be included in Payment Region Three. To be eligible, you must be:
- a sole producer or
- a company or
- partnership or
- a group of these
We make payments on homebred ewe hoggs that are kept on your farm or croft from 1 December in the year claimed to 31 March the following year.
To be eligible, animals must be identified in accordance with the Animal Identification and Traceability Regulations. There is an upper payment limit of one ewe hogg to every four hectares.
To apply for support through this scheme you must have first submitted a Single Application Form for the same year. You can find out more about the Single Application Form using the link below.
You can then apply for upland sheep support each year between 1 September and 30 November.
Using our online service is the easiest and quickest way to submit your claim.
However, you can also claim by post using a claim form.
Scottish Upland Sheep Scheme claim form
Completed forms, along with details of each animal's identification number, should be sent to your local RPID area office. You can find contact details for each office in our contact section.
The animals you claim for must be kept on your farm from 1 December until 31 March the following year.
If any animal you have claimed for dies or is sold, you must write to or email your local area office within 10 days of becoming aware and ask for the animal to be withdrawn from your claim.
We will pay you in pounds sterling, unless you tell us on your Single Application Form to pay you in euros.
Payments will be made to your business’ nominated bank account using BACS.
We can only pay into a United Kingdom bank account held in the name of the business. You must provide your business’ bank account details to allow us to pay you.
We aim to acknowledge your claim by letter within 14 days.
We will start making payments in April and aim to pay all eligible claims by 30 June following the end of each scheme year.
If you receive support from this scheme you will be subject to our inspections programme.
You can find out more about how and why we carry out inspections in our dedicated section
Inspections can be held at any reasonable date and time. Our inspector may ask you to gather your animals at a convenient place on the holding.
You must provide secure handling facilities to allow us to check each animal’s ear tag.
If you refuse to let us carry out an inspection or do not give reasonable help to the inspector we will not pay your subsidy. You may also face prosecution.
At an inspection, we will:
- count your animals
- check all sheep on your farm or croft and compare your flock register against ScotEID records
- check your animals are eligible for the scheme
- check supporting documents, such as purchase and sales receipts and slaughter certificates
- check that ScotEID have been told about all animals movements
If we find you have not been following the scheme rules, you could face a penalty such as your payment being reduced or cancelled entirely.
It is important we take action where we do find that the requirements of the scheme have not been followed to make sure we are acting within European Commission law and avoid the Scottish Government being fined by the Commission.
If you knowingly make a false statement to receive payment for yourself or for someone else you may even be prosecuted.
If we find a difference between the number of animals you claim in a scheme year and the number of animals that are eligible, we will reduce your payment by a percentage error rate.
To find the percentage error rate, we divide the number of ineligible animals found by the number of animals remaining eligible.
You may also face a penalty if you do not keep your land in good agricultural and environmental condition or if you do not keep to the statutory management requirements, which include the Animal Identification Regulations.
If you are unhappy with a decision we have made regarding your application, you have the right to appeal.
Likewise, if you are unhappy with our service as a whole, we have a dedicated complaints procedure to help you resolve this.
If you have any questions about this scheme, please get in touch. Contact details can be found in our Contact us section.