Unfair 2015 BPS inspection fines challenged

The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) has been warned it is unreasonable to apply 2015 Basic Payment Scheme inspection penalties without first providing farmers with a copy of the inspection report.

Formatting problems are understood to have prevented the RPA from making 2015 reports available this year – much to the frustration of farm leaders and consultants.

The Tenant Farmers Association (TFA) held a meeting with senior RPA staff last week, where they flagged problems caused by the lack of information provided to farmers.

See also: RPA faces growing pressure over late BPS 2015 payments

The meeting was attended by the RPA’s director for external affairs, Arik Dondi, and Simon Lunniss, customer and stakeholder relations manager.

George Dunn, TFA chief executive, said: “There are people who were inspected in 2015 and have been told they are being penalised for an inspection failure. But they have been unable to get access to an inspection report, so they can’t interrogate the methodology.

“The TFA made it clear to the RPA’s representatives that no penalty should be applied to a claimant in respect of an inspection breach if they have not been provided with sufficient information to justify the penalty and to be able to calculate accurately how the penalty has been applied.”

‘Penalties should be written off’

Ed Barker, farm management consultant for Cheffins, said he was in the position of trying to correct payments for clients where there was no report to help them contest the RPA decision.

“Greening inspections took place more than 18 months ago, so how are we going to resolve what was where and who said what at this stage?

“If the RPA is unable to provide the documentation, I would agree that the penalties should be written off. Otherwise I can see we’re still going to be arguing about 2015 payments in 2018.”

Mr Barker said penalties were causing particular problems for those farms that had seen entitlements confiscated as a result of the RPA deciding the rules had been breached.

“We have no prospect of timely or accurate 2016 payments until these entitlements have been reinstated.”

An RPA spokesperson said: “For BPS 2015, claimants can check their most up-to-date mapping information by looking at their digital maps on the Rural Payments Service.

“For BPS 2016 we will be able to issue inspection reports, as well as provide more information on applicants’ claims. Any farmer who thinks their 2015 payment is different to what they expected, can write to us and we can explain how the payment was calculated.”