About our services

Table of Contents



Rural Payments and Services is delivered by the Scottish Government’s Rural Payments and Inspections Division (RPID), with delivery partners. RPID is the accredited paying agency in Scotland for all European Commission Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) schemes.

We have around 600 staff in 17 area offices throughout Scotland providing a range of services – some in the office covering administration and developing policy, others out in the field updating maps or conducting inspections.

In 2018, we received over 19,700 applications for funding. This was made up of over 18,000 claims for the Basic Payment Scheme and just short of 2,400 for either the Agri-Environment Climate Scheme or Forestry Grant Scheme.

Our key responsibilities are:

  • payment of Common Agricultural Policy scheme grants and subsidies. This is around £650m per annum in European Commission and Scottish Government funding
  • inspection of agricultural land and livestock to ensure compliance with European Commission regulations

In 2015, we implemented the biggest reform of the Common Agricultural Policy in a generation.

We understand that the world is changing and with it your needs are changing too. To help, we have worked hard to make it easier for you to register and transact with us online by building a new service for all of the Common Agricultural Policy schemes – Rural Payments and Services. Further Improvements continue to be made.

From January 2015, Direct Payments (known as Pillar 1) of the new Common Agricultural Policy is made up of:

Schemes available through the Scottish Rural Development Programme (know as Pillar 2) are: