The Guide to Cross Compliance in England 2012 edition.pdf

IntroductionThe Campaign for the Farmed EnvironmentPayment ReductionsIf you do not meet all of the cross compliance rules, we may reduce your payments for applicationssubmitted in the calendar year the non-compliance was found.If you break more than one rule within the same broad area (for example, animal welfare), we willtreat this as one single case of non-compliance.If you break the rules in different areas (for example, animal welfare and the environment), we willtreat these as separate cases of non-compliance. We will add the separate percentage reductionstogether.We will not make a payment to anyone who artificially creates the conditions required to receivepayment.Negligent non-complianceIf you do not meet a cross compliance rule through negligence, we will generally reduce yourpayments by 3% for each non-compliance. This may be reduced to 1% or increased to 5%depending on the extent, severity and permanence of the non-compliance. In limited circumstancesa warning letter may be issued. You can read guidance on how we decide upon the extent, severityand permanence of a non-compliance in the Cross Compliance Verifiable Standards For Englanddocument on our website at rpa.defra.gov.uk/crosscompliance/inspectionprocess.As stated above, if you don’t meet the rules in different areas, we will make separate reductionsfor each non-compliance. We will add the percentage reductions together, but the maximumreduction will be 5% of your overall payment.If you don’t meet the same rule more than once during a period of 3 consecutive calendar years,the reduction which applies to the repeated non-compliance will be 3 times that for a first timenon-compliance. Reductions for further repetitions will continue to be multiplied by 3, up to amaximum of 15% of your overall payments.If you continue not to meet the rules and the reduction has reached 15%, we will treat any furthercases of non-compliance as intentional. We will multiply the earlier reduction by 3. We will workthis out on the original amount and before we applied the 15% maximum.Example 1If in 2011 you did not meet the cattle identification rules (SMR 7) as you did not report movementsof your cattle, this would have resulted in a 3% reduction to your 2011 payments. If in 2012 youagain did not report movements of your cattle, but not as many as in 2011, this would normallyhave resulted in a 1% reduction. However, as this is a repeat non-compliance, we multiply the1% reduction by 3. We would then make a 3% reduction to your 2012 payments.Example 2If in 2011 you did not meet the protection of hedgerows and watercourses rules (GAEC 14) asyou did not maintain a green cover within 2 metres of a number of your hedgerows, we wouldhave reduced your 2011 payment by 3%. If in 2012 you again did not maintain a green coverwithin 2 metres of even more of your hedgerows, we would normally have reduced your paymentsby 5%. However, as this is a repeat non-compliance, we multiply the 5% reduction by 3. We wouldthen reduce your 2012 payments by 15%.7