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Scotland
Scotland has opted for “Full Decoupling” with a
single farm payment (SFPS) replacing all existing
support schemes (except LFASS, CPS and RSS). Payments
will be “Historic Based Payments” calculated from
the arable and livestock claims made by individual
farming businesses during 2000, 2001 and 2002.
The actual payments received will be reduced by
“Modulation”, whereby a percentage of the SFPS will
be siphoned off annually. We understand the proposed
modulation reductions to be 3% to establish the
National Reserve, plus 10% EU and national modulation,
and a further percentage should the total of individual
entitlements exceed the ceiling set for Scotland.
Additionally a “Beef National Envelope” is to be
implemented which will reduce “beef producers” annual
SFPS by a further 10%. However, we understand in
return beef producers will receive annually £70
per head for the first ten suckled calves registered
through BCMS and £35 per head for all other beef
bred calves from suckler cows thereafter.
To activate SFPS entitlement it is necessary firstly
for the entitlements to be enabled, from occupation
of not less than 0.3 hectares, and secondly for
the entitlement to be claimed. The procedure to
enable and claim entitlements will, we understand
be similar to an IACS return, which will need to
be submitted to SEERAD prior to 16th May 2005.
Each SFP entitlement will require to be matched
with an eligible hectare, which is essentially an
IACS arable or forage hectare. Land under permanent
crops (ie trees), horticultural crops or used for
nonagricultural activities is specifically not eligible.
All allocated entitlements require firstly to be
enabled in 2005 and thereafter claimed within three
years, failure to do so will result in the unenabled
and unclaimed entitlement being confiscated from
farming businesses and siphoned into the National
Reserve.
Land claimed for SFPS can be used for any agricultural
activity, which is defined as “the production, rearing
or growing of agricultural products or maintaining
the land in good agricultural and environmental
condition (GAEC)” The land however must be available
to the claimant for not less than ten straight months,
though occupation of the land claimed can commence
at any time between 1st October and 1st April.
At Bell Ingram we have prepared a database of approximately
20,000 hectares of SFPS eligible land that is available
for SFPS lease, which will allow farming businesses
with entitlement but without eligible land to enable
and claim their entitlement.
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Please
feel free to contact us should you fall into this
category.
SFPS payment will also be subject to two cross-compliance
conditions, which are:
1. To meet statutory requirements for the environment,
public, plant and animal health and for animal welfare.
2. To keep the land in good agricultural and environmental
condition (GAEC) which broadly requires the maintenance
of field boundaries and a requirement not to allow
the area claimed to return to scrub.
Holders of entitlement should be aware that they
are unable to transfer/sell their entitlement until
they have claimed 80% of their allocation. Similarly
a business awarded set aside entitlement (SAE) in
addition to standard entitlement must claim their
SAE before they can claim the standard entitlement.
Failure to comply with this ruling would render
a SFPS claim invalid.
For those letting or taking seasonal grass “consolidation”
has been brought into the equation. Consolidation
allows those who have less land in 2005 compared
to the number of entitlements allocated to
enhance the value of their entitlements. The reduction
in area available can be due to non-renewal of seasonal
lets, expiry or amendment of a tenancy agreement,
or woodland creation. Consolidation is performed
by surrendering the original entitlements to the
National Reserve in exchange for a lesser number
of entitlements of a greater value, though these
entitlements come with additional restrictions.
Finally, and importantly for cashflow and budget
preparation, SFPS payments are anticipated to take
place between 1st December 2005 and 30th June 2006,
and the actual payment will be based on the exchange
rate in December 2005.
A brief summary of what is happening elsewhere in
the UK is as follows:
England
For months the industry has been wagering on whether
the revision to the Common Agricultural Policy would
provide farmers with an individual single farm payment
based on the average annual historic crop and stock
claims in the qualifying years 2000 - 2002 or a
simple flat rate per hectare payment.
The mud is starting to clear and we are in actual
fact getting neither but heading for a “hybrid”
which will commence 1st January 2005. Entitlements
will be “decoupled” from actual production and will
be based on a mixture of historic claims and flat
rate payments payable on land registered into the
scheme in May 2005. In 2005 the basis of 90% of
the claim will be the historic annual payments but
by 2012 this will reduce to 0%. In 2005 10% of the
payment will be a flat-rate payment, which will
increase to 100% of the payment in 2012. There will
be no use of National Envelopes in England.
All payments will be conditional on “compliance”
with good agricultural and
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