Regionalisation of payments
Date published: 8 June, 2016
To see recent changes to this guidance, check the bottom of this page.
Introduction
The way we allocate funding means that Direct Payments (Basic Payment Scheme and Greening) will be paid on an area basis to reflect the variation in land quality across Scotland.
Each land parcel will be allocated a Payment Region. There will be three Payment Regions:
- Region One
This includes better quality agricultural land that has been used for arable cropping, temporary grass and permanent grass
- Region Two
This includes rough grazing with a Less Favoured Areas (LFA) grazing category of B, C, D or non-LFA
- Region Three
This includes rough grazing with an LFA grazing category A
Basic Payment Scheme – allocation of Payment Regions
If you, or a seasonal tenant:
- submitted a Single Application Form (SAF) in 2014 and claimed land under the Single Farm Payment Scheme (SFPS) 2014, or
- submitted a SAF for the first time in 2015 to claim land for Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) that had not been claimed for SFPS in 2014
we will have allocated every claimed land parcel a Payment Region.
Payment Regions were allocated using objective criteria which took into account:
- the land parcel's Land Cover of Scotland 1988 (LCS88) data
- Less Favoured Area Support Scheme (LFASS) Grazing Category
- and, if applicable, the crop code used to claim SFPS on the SAF 2014 or BPS on the SAF 2015, if SFPS not claimed in 2014
We used this objective criteria to separate land between Payment Region one and Payment Regions two and three.
- we assessed land parcels with either 40 per cent or more SFPS eligible arable crops and rotational grass (excluding permanent grass) or 50 per cent or more permanent grass and LCS88 smooth grassland as Payment Region one
- land parcels containing more than 60 per cent rough grazing (RGR) were then provisionally assessed as being either Payment Region two or three, depending on their LFASS Grazing Category
- those in categories B, C or D were provisionally assessed as Payment Region two and those in Category A were provisionally assessed as being Payment Region three
- land parcels claimed and eligible for SFPS that were predominately permanent grass (PGRS) were subject to further system and manual based cross checks to determine the provisional Payment Region
Further information
You can find out more about reform of the Common Agricultural Policy below.
Reform of the Common Agricultural Policy
Recent changes
| Section | Change | Previous text | New text |
|---|---|---|---|
| Land Parcel | section removed | ||
| Basic Payment Scheme - allocation of payment regions | Text change | If you, or a seasonal tenant, submitted a Single Application Form (SAF) in 2014 and claimed land under the Single Farm Payment Scheme or submitted a SAF for the first time in 2015 to claim land for Basic Payment Scheme, we will have sent you a letter(s) listing the claimed land parcels and the Payment Region we provisionally believe each land parcel to be in. We have asked you to check the details in our letter(s), even if you agreed with our provisional assessment. This is because your future payments may be penalised if, at a later date, we discover the payment region allocated to a land parcel is incorrect. For example, if we told you a land parcel is Payment Region One but subsequently discover it should be Payment Region Two. | If you, or a seasonal tenant submitted a Single Application Form (SAF) in 2014 and claimed land under the Single Farm Payment Scheme (SFPS) 2014, or submitted a SAF for the first time in 2015 to claim land for Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) that had not been claimed for SFPS in 2014, we have allocated every claimed land parcel a Payment Region. We did this using objective criteria which took account of the land parcel(s) Land Cover or Scotland of Scotland 1988 (LCS88) data, Less Favoured Area Support Scheme (LFASS) Grazing Category, and if applicable the crop code used to claim SFPS on the SAF 2014 or BPS on the SAF 2015, if SFPS not claimed in 2014. We used this objective criteria to differentiate between Payment Region 1 and Payment Regions 2 and 3. We assessed land parcels with either 40% or more SFPS eligible arable crops and rotational grass (excluding permanent grass) or 50% or more permanent grass and LCS88 smooth grassland as Payment Region 1. Land parcels containing more than 60% rough grazing (RGR) were then provisionally assessed as being either Payment Region 2 or 3 depending on their LFASS Grazing Category; categories B, C or D were provisionally assessed as Payment Region 2 and Category A were provisionally assessed as being Payment Region 3. Land parcels claimed and eligible for SFPS that were predominately permanent grass (PGRS) were subject to further system and manual based cross checks to determine the provisional Payment Region. |
| Basic Payment Scheme – provisional allocation of payment regions | Text change | If you, or a seasonal tenant, submitted a Single Application Form in 2014 and claimed land under the Single Farm Payment Scheme, we will have sent you a letter listing the claimed land parcels and the Payment Region we provisionally believed each land parcel to be in. | If you, or a seasonal tenant, submitted a Single Application Form in 2014 and claimed land under the Single Farm Payment Scheme or submitted a Single Application Form for the first time in 2015 to claim land for Basic Payment Scheme, we will have sent you a letter(s) listing the claimed land parcels and the Payment Region we provisionally believe each land parcel to be in. |
| Land parcel reviews | Text change | If you asked us to review one or more of the land parcels on the table we sent to you last year, we will write to you to tell you the outcome of our review. If we asked you for further evidence to support your request please send this to us as soon as possible, if you have not already done so. | If you think our provisional assessment of any of your land parcels is wrong you can ask us to review it using the form below. The deadline for doing this is in any correspondence we have sent you. If you ask us to do this you will need to supply some further evidence for example a detailed map with measurements of the relative areas of rough grazing, permanent grazing of arable land, along with photographs. |
| Updated 'Regional payments questions and answers' document added | |||
| New Payment Region review request form added | Your area office must receive your completed form within 60 days of the date of our Provisional Payment Region Allocation letter | Your area office must receive your completed form within 30 days of the date of our Provisional Payment Region Allocation letter | |
| Missing land parcels | Section removed |
Previous versions
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