So what's available now?
Here's the NFU’s guide to what's out there already:
Available now
BPS Guidance and Forms
- The Basic Payment Scheme in England 2015 Handbook and list of Brassicas for Crop Diversification – The handbook covers the vast majority of the rules for farmers in England; these documents can be found here.
Please note: the Handbook sections on ‘Key Dates in 2015’ and ‘Making an Application’ have been replaced by the information in the How to Apply for the 2015 Basic Payment Scheme in England guidebook (see later also). The Guidance and Handbook should be read in conjunction.
- Active Farmer Certification Form and Guidance – This information complements the BPS Handbook section on Active Farmer and includes the certificate itself; these documents can be found here.
- National Reserve (New Farmer) / Young Farmer Scheme Certification Form and Guidance –This information complements the BPS Handbook sections on National Reserve / Young Farmer Scheme and includes the certificate itself. These documents can be found here.
- Claiming Common Land - This guidance explains what farmers can claim under BPS for the grazing rights they have for a common or area of shared grazing and can be found here. This guidance follows on from the earlier 'Treatment of Common Land under BPS (and SPS)' document in which Defra announced its policy on common land under BPS, and also SPS, this can be found here.
- Cross Border Guidance – This guidance deals with how to claim the Basic Payment Scheme if you have land in more than one part of the UK. This can be found here.
- The IACS 26 Separate Business Questionnaire and IACS 26 Guidance – This form is used to notify the RPA of change to the business or where a farmer is involved in more than one business. These documents can be found here.
- Probate guidance – This is the RPA’s guidance on what procedures they will follow in the event of an applicant’s death. Click here to view.
Application Guidance and Forms
- How to Apply for the 2015 Basic Payment Scheme in England - This should be read in connection with the main BPS Handbook (above) and replaced the ‘Key Dates’ and ‘How to Make an Application’ section of the Handbook, it is available here.
- Greening Workbook for the Basic Payment Scheme in England - Designed to assist applicants in assessing whether they are meeting the crop diversification and ecological focus area requirements, it can be viewed here.
- BPS Rural Land & Entitlements 1 (RLE1) Form & Guidance 2015– This form is used to tell the RPA about changes to land or to transfer entitlements and replaces the SPS versions which were being used for BPS claims also. The BPS RLE1 form & guidance is available here.
- Greening: EFA Hedges Next to Fallow Land, Nitrogen Fixing Crops or Catch/Cover Crops - This document provides diagrams to illustrate where EFA features can overlap. It provides further supporting guidance to the information found on page 47 of the BPS Handbook and can be found here.
- Coding non-agricultural land when you claim for the Basic Payment Scheme: full list of codes – this should assist applicant when the main ‘How to Apply’ 2015 guidance does not contain a relevant code, it is available here.
- Coding agricultural land when you claim for the Basic Payment Scheme: full list of codes - this should assist applicant when the main ‘How to Apply’ 2015 guidance does not contain a relevant code, it is available here.
- The Basic Payment Scheme 2015 – How Do I? – This guidance covers registration, transfer of entitlements and completing the BP5, it is available here.
- Blank BP5 Application Form–The RPA recommend that applicants wait to receive their pre-populated BP5 application forms before completing their claim. However, the blank form can be used by applicants who want to start to prepare their claim now, it is available here.
- Continuation Booklets - for Part C (land), Part D (EFA Greening) and Part E (commons) of BP5 form – These will be available to help farmers who need additional space, and are available here.
Cross Compliance Guidance
Don’t forget cross compliance…
- The Guide to Cross Compliance in England 2015 and appendices - Sets out the rules for cross compliance under BPS. There are also 4 appendices which are published separately (covering SMR 2, SMR 3 & SMR 13 and GAEC 3), these documents are available here.
- Cross Compliance in England: Soil Protection Standards 2015 - This guide provides further information on how to comply with cross compliance standards GAEC 4, 5 and 6, it is available here.
What are we waiting for?
- Worked Example of a BP5 Application – we are lobbying for a worked example of a completed BP5 application form to walk farmers through their pre-populated BP5 forms.
To check for the latest RPA releases and to ensure that you are using the latest version of the guidance/forms please visit gov.uk.
Many of the guidance documents referred to above will have been posted directly to BPS applicants; often this is as a direct result of NFU lobbying.