Cross compliance requirements now affect Environmental Stewardship.
Cross compliance, which already applies to those claiming under the
Single Payment Scheme (SPS), will also apply to all Environmental Stewardship agreements entered into on, or after, 1 January 2007.

This means that farmers will have to be able to demonstrate that they
are keeping their land in Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition
(GAEC) and complying with a number of specified legal requirements known as Statutory Management Requirements (SMRs). If farmers are found to be in
breach of these standards or requirements, then appropriate and proportionate penalties will be applied to their Environmental Stewardship
payment and also their SPS payment (if claimed).

Full details of cross compliance can be found in the 'Single Payment
Scheme Cross Compliance Handbook for England' and the 'Supplement for 2007' or via the Defra cross compliance advice programme. This has a dedicated helpline, email address and website, details as follows:

Cross compliance helpline: 0845 345 1302
http://www.crosscompliance.org.uk
email: info@crosscompliance.org.uk

David Middleditch

In the light of the stated position of this administration and indeed the beauracracy at DEFRA to eventually dispense with agricultural subsidies altogether, what I would be very interested to find out is what will become of the whole cross-compliance system then.  I.e. will everyone still be forced to comply even without subsidy?  Where will this leave those who are currently outside the system for various reasons, that is non-claimants: will they have cross-compliance imposed upon them without compensation?  Has anyone explored these issues?

A cross compliance adviser recently said that the reason that cross compliance is split into 2 is that, whilst the GAEC part is an add-on if you like, (and only there because claimants are in receipt of funding), the Statutory Management Requirements (SMR) are legal obligations and  will be around whether or not there is a corresponding Single Payment.

In my own opinion, I believe that Europe, (if not Defra) will be prepared to pay a small amount, (perhaps £ 30-40/acre) after the current SPS system runs out in 2012, in order to ensure that landowners and farmers maintain the environment in a certain way. If the payment is lower than this, (or the obligations become much greater) many more will opt out and farm the land the way they want to without restriction.

www.mooreallen.co.uk

Currently, except for the narrow remits of animal welfare or food standards officials, the main mechanism to check compliance is the RPA visit.  The only recourse for non compliance is to reduce or withdraw subsidy.  When the subsidy is gone what recourse will there be.  Does this raise the future spectre of farmers being imprisoned because their field margins don't quite measure up?

My observations, as someone who is currently outside the system , present a picture of nit-picking inspections by people with little or no experience of and less sympathy for the industry and it's members.  Perhaps this is an unrepresentative sample, but experience suggests we can only expect the regime to become more rule bound over time.