Rural Payments and Services

This is an old version of the page

Date published: 1 January, 2015

Date superseded: 26 January, 2016

Every year, we will inspect three per cent of holdings registered to keep sheep and goats and five per cent of the entire Scottish sheep and goat population.

The main purpose of the inspection is to check you are complying with the sheep and goat keeper requirements so that we can monitor and trace the population if there is a serious disease outbreak.

Our inspector will count the number of animals at your farm, check they are correctly tagged and check your animal movement records and documents.

Specifically, our inspectors will check that:

• your animals have been tagged and recorded correctly
• you are registered to keep sheep and goats
• your holding register is up to date
• you have correctly completed and retained movement documents
• you have notified sheep and goat movements to the Scottish Animal Movement Unit
• your animals are eligible for subsidies

Livestock inspections are a part of the Cross Compliance inspections programme.

You can find out more about Cross Compliance here

Our inspections programme is designed to ensure the highest standards in Scottish agriculture, and the Scottish Government is liable for fines from Europe if there is widespread failure to meet key rules.

So, if you fail any part of your inspection, you could be liable for a reduction in payments or even legal action.

If you do fail part or all of your inspection, we will refer to this as a breach and any further action will be assessed depending on how serious the breach is.

The sheep and goat identification and traceability section of the Scottish Government website holds information about the main regulations that inform our inspections.

Sheep and goat identification and traceability guidance

Details of the inspection process can be found in our guidance notes for Scottish Government staff who carry out livestock inspections.

Sheep identification inspections

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